


Star Wars Episode 9 First of the New (A Fan version)

by ArkenKay



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:34:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 38,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22531801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArkenKay/pseuds/ArkenKay
Summary: Shortly after their defeat in Episode 8, the Resistance finds new allies, and new hope as they figure out what to do next.  Rey and Kylo Ren both seek and find unexpected destinies.  Fans of Star Wars Rebels and The Clone Wars may see some familiar faces.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Star Wars Episode 9 First of the New (A Fan version)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this shortly before the release of Episode 9. Basically, I put myself in the writer's shoes and asked what I would do, given the history of Star Wars and the possibilities, how I would write it. This is what I came up with. It's probably bit rough, but hopefully a fun ride.

A Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far Far Away...

It is a dark time in the Galaxy. KYLO REN, having destroyed SUPREME LEADER SNOKE with the help of the young JEDI REY has not freed the galaxy as she hoped, but instead has thrust it into even deeper darkness. 

Tragedy after tragedy has befallen the RESISTANCE. While the intervention of LUKE SKYWALKER on CRAIT bought the RESISTANCE the opportunity to flee from the FIRST ORDER, the RESISTANCE fleet completely destroyed and the FIRST ORDER fleet crippled by the heroic sacrifice of VICE ADMIRAL HOLDO. But the FIRST ORDER has many more fleets at it's disposal. 

With a double score of survivors and only MILLENIUM FALCON, the RESISTANCE must find a way to rebuild to defeat the FIRST ORDER, whose iron grip has expanded to rule the galaxy since the destruction of the NEW REPUBLIC by the fallen STARKILLER BASE.

As the RESISTANCE considers what to do next, even worse news befalls the REISTANCE. GENERAL LEIA has collapsed from the injuries and hardships suffered, including the death of her legendary brother LUKE SKYWALKER, and lies dying. 

Meanwhile, REY must content with these losses and a growing understanding of the FORCE.

But all hope is not lost. Older REBELS may yet join the fight. 

The FIRST ORDER hunts the heroes of the REISTANCE and the deepest fear of all is that it may only be a matter of time before the FIRST ORDER is triumphant.

\-----

Captain Sarren pensively looked out the view port of the First Order Star Destroyer, utterly failing to enjoy the glory of lightspeed. Instead worry filled his blue eyes. Word had reached him that Supreme Leader Snoke had been murdered by a Resistance assassin and Kylo Ren had ascended in his place. Their orders were simple. They were to find the Millennium Falcon and capture her and her crew before they could disappear. 

Suddenly, one of the officers from the navigation pits spoke up, "Sir, we found the Millenium Falcon's drive signature."

His young face twisted into a dark, satisfied smile as he responded, "Helm, change our course to intercept, all gunners and tractor beam operators to their stations. Communications, open a channel to Supreme Leader Ren's ship. Tell him, 'we will have them soon.' Today, we snuff out the resistance to our order, gentlemen. Today, we crush the hope of chaotic self rule. Today is our day."

And it was their day, just not their day to win.

In the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, Rey brooded. Chewbacca was in the limited med bay in back, alongside R2-D2, C-3PO, and even Poe Dameron. The rest of the resistance mourned beside them. Finn had apparently gone somewhere else to do his own processing.

She looked out at the empty star field. There was nothing around but stars in the far distance. They had simply stopped in the middle of nowhere to try to figure out what to do next. In the middle of the discussion, Princess Leia collapsed. Rey sighed deeply, feeling more lost than she had ever felt before. Finally, she spoke to the empty cabin, "What are we going to do? 

"We have no fleet, no allies, no money, and I have no one to teach me how to wield the Force. Kylo Ren has all the advantages, all the tools, even the Holonet is his. We don't have Leia and we don't even have an Admiral to lead the fleet we don't have."

"Amazing, everything you said there is wrong, " came Luke's slightly distant voice from behind her. She turned and her heart caught in her throat. There he was, with his lined face and gray striped beard and the hard worn hands of a moisture farmer crossed in his lap. His clothes were simple desert garb beneath a Jedi robe. He was sitting in one of the secondary command chairs. But there was something translucent about him, and a bluish aura surrounded him. His eyes however, held laughter and peace she'd never seen before.

"Luke!?! Is that you?" Rey said excitedly, hope swelling in her heart, "How are you here? Can you help us? What about Leia? What do we do?"

Luke held up his hand and said, "Slow down Rey. In order, Yes, the Force, give me a second, it's complicated, and that's on the living."

At Rey's look of utter confusion, Luke lifted his hand and said, "The Force is far more than just what we see. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter, to quote my mentor on the subject. Basically it means I can visit, from time to time."

"Oh, so you can teach me more?"

Luke sighed, "Not exactly, the dead can only teach their history to the living. We're not so good on advice for living. Still, I do have good news, you already have all you need to learn how to be a Jedi. Or rather, will shortly." 

"What does THAT mean?" Rey said.

"Allow an old man a few surprises, will you?" Luke said, and then turned much sadder as he huddled into the chair, "The next is not so happy. I'm sorry to say Leia's time is ending. Loss can be like this. I had hoped she could teach you more, but it appears the Force had other ideas. As a Jedi, you must release your attachment to her. By the way, releasing her doesn't mean forgetting her. Morn her and remember her. Listen to the Force. If I know her, she'll have plenty of things to say, and trust your friends, they will see you through, like mine saw me through, so long ago."

"So I'm it, the last of the Jedi, " Rey said, a soft sense of being alone wafting through her like the warmth of Jaku on a quiet night.

Luke laughed in a fading voice, "No, Rey, not last of the old. You're going to fix my mistakes. The Knights of Ren and First Order aren't going to know what hit them. You are the first of the new."

With that Rey found herself alone in the cockpit with the plaintive sounds of a Wookie in mourning.

In another section of deep space, an officer in an imperial gray uniform also looked out a series of triangular interlocking view ports at the stars, his black hair just showing beneath the bottom of his round cap. On either side of the walkway stretching out behind him were recessed crew galleys where similarly dressed beings worked tirelessly. Behind him, a door wooshed open as a white uniformed humanoid strode onto the bridge. The crew rose quickly to attention, only to settle back at his command to be at ease. The captain half turned to him and said, "Admiral, the Grey Lady's information was spot on. We know where their ship is."

"Excellent," he responded, in an almost hard edged, yet musical voice, "Alert Owl Squadron. Request that her ladyship join them."

"Yes sir, " the captain responded. While the admiral's blue skinned face was normally impassive, the captain had spent far too long around him and had learned to read his moods. The captain said, "yes Admiral?"

The Admiral's red eyes narrowed as he walked up so they could talk quietly. It was clear he was looking at the unusual blaster hanging from the captain's hip. It had a round handle with a trigger guard that ran the length of the handle and connected at the bottom. The topper was small and rectangular. Unlike most blasters, which have a barrel, this blaster had small emitter on the front. In addition to the trigger, there were a couple of small levers for easy working by one's thumb. The Admiral sighed, "I see you have decided to join Owl Leader in relaxing the dress code. Any particular reason?"

"I have a hunch I'm going to need it again soon, " the captain said and smiled ruefully. He could tell the Admiral was only a tiny bit annoyed, but more curious. 

The Admiral nodded gravely. He said, "Very well, let us make sure uniform discipline does not become too lax, shall we Captain?"

"Aye aye, sir, " the captain replied.

The Admiral said, "I have studied our foes, and I am prepared to see what we learn. We shall use Sigma Beta Nine, Captain Pellaeon."

"Ah, Yes sir," the captain said and gave the appropriate orders. Moments later, the viewport's empty star field became that of the mottled glory of hyperspace.

In the top turret of the Millennium Falcon, Finn sat quietly looking at the stars, his dark hands resting on the inactive targeting scope. Behind him, her heard the sounds of someone climbing up behind him, followed by a slight thump and a melodious engineer's curse, when that someone forgot that the Corellians had odd thoughts about where to position gravity plates on freighters. He turned in the targeting chair to see Rose Tico attempting to recover her dignity. She rather quickly gave up and decided to rest on the ladder while looking at up at him. She framed her dark locks with her hands on her cheeks. They sat quietly for a moment before Rose said, "How are you holding up?"

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure the First Order will kill us if they can. We're stuck in a cramped freighter and I have no idea where we'll go next or what we'll do. I didn't know Princess Leia all that well and I never really met Luke until he came striding through temporary home, so it's like I don't quite miss them, but I feel like I should. So it's a hollow feeling of wish I'd had the chance to know her better.

"But the weird thing is, when it's all said and done, I have never been happier to be where I am," Finn said.

Rose looked to be collecting her thoughts to respond when she looked out the window in horror. In the distance, a massive First Order Star Destroyer had reverted within striking distance. 

Aboard the Star Destroyer, Captain Sarren smiled wickedly, and said, " Prepare tractor beams and put forward batteries at the ready. Shields up. I want a status report on that freighter."

All around the bridge came quick affirmatives. The sensor officer called out, "Their shields just came up and their engines are coming online now. Oh, and they're powering up their weapons. Sir, I think they will try to make a run for it."

"Oh we can't have that, can we? This is the day the Resistance dies. This is the day we take prisoners to be tried and publicly executed. And this is the day I ascend in rank."

Luke would have called it amazing, and then pointed out that everything he just said there was wrong. But then Luke probably knew some things about the universe that Captain Sarren didn't.

Rey was in the process of powering up the ship when Poe came rushing into the cockpit, leaping into the copilot's seat. Chewbacca came rushing in on his furred long legs, and proceeded to use his reach to pluck Poe out of the co-pilot's seat and then deposit him in the navigator's seat. As Poe grumbled, Chewbacca's roar made his opinion on the subject known. Moments later BB-88 rolled quickly into the cockpit, popping his data arm into the nearby terminal. R2-D2 rolled in right after and stopped. The cockpit exploded into high pitched warbles shrieks and bleeps as a shocked C-3PO blocked any one else from getting into the cockpit.

"R2-D2, such language! That is most uncalled for," the golden android said.

R2-D2, in response, turned his domed head and blew an electric raspberry at C-3PO, and swiveled back to resume the argument when Rey said, "Cool it! I can't think with you three arguing! Poe, mind grabbing one of the quads?"

Poe fled his chair, pushed C-3PO out of his way and said, "On it."

A moment later he shouted out, "Finn's in the top, I'm grabbing bottom!"

Chewbacca howled something out at BB-88 who responded with a warble, data arm turning. Just as they got their weapons online and engines ready to run towards hyperspace, things got worse. An imperial gray Star Destroyer with black markings barely visible from below flickered into real space above them. Only C-3PO seemed to be able to find the mournful words, "We're doomed."

On the bridge of the First Order Star Destroyer, Captain Sarren was simply perplexed. He recognized the lines of a Star Destroyer, but it clearly wasn't from the First Order. In fact it looked like something he had heard of from the Empire. The communications officer piped up, "Sir, we've got an incoming transmission from the ship."

"Put it on, let's see what the captain of this piece of bantha poodo has to say, before we blast them to smithereens."

A hologram of a blue skinned humanoid with his hands tucked behind his back sprang to life. He was wearing a crisp white uniform cut in the a style that someone with more historical savvy would have recognized as a Grand Admiral's uniform from the Galactic Empire. His hair was black with mottles of gray, but his red, glowing eyes seemed to take everything in at a glance. He spoke, "Greetings First Order Star Destroyer, I am Grand Admiral Thrawn, late of Galactic Imperial Service. I must inform you that the freighter below, identified as the 'Millennium Falcon' is under the protection of the ship and we politely ask you to withdraw."

Captain Sarren laughed, "In that relic. I don't recognize you or your ship, so I think our superior ship will just pound yours into scrap if you don't withdrawal."

Grand Admiral Thrawn had politely allowed the Millenium Falcon and occupants to listen in. It was R2-D2 that exploded into a series of beeps that C-3PO rushed to translate, "Artoo says that he thinks that's the Chimera above us, and if that is the case, that probably is the Grand Admiral."

"Who?" Rey said incredulously. 

Chewbacca wruffed for silence and got it as the Grand Admiral responded to Captain Sarren, "I wonder, captain, if you are aware of my history with this kind of conflict."

On the bridge of the Chimera Captain Pellaeon watched Grand Admiral Thrawn take the measure of his foe and find him wanting. As Captain Sarren clearly made a two finger motion, followed by a quick circle and then a fist at the back of the arc, Captain Pellaeon felt the urge to slap his face into his palm. While the Grand Admiral might look like he was giving Captain Sarren his undivided attention, he wasn't. He was also looking at the holodisplay projected behind the First Order's Captain that was providing real time updates on the enemy ship, not that Captain Sarren's obvious order to double front his shields in front by lowering the rear shield had escaped the Admiral's notice. The Grand Admiral meanwhile took advantage of his hands clasped behind his back to signal Pellaeon orders without showing his hand to the First Order Captain. Pellaeon moved to the navigator's station and took over.

Captain Sarren further enshrined himself in the Admiral's esteem with his caustic reply, "History only matters when it's narrative serves the First Order. And if you think you can use your hyperdrive to ram this ship, I have bad news, this ship has had that little flaw fixed. Soon, all of the First Order's ships will have that fixed as well. So you might as well give up now, no matter who you were."

In the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, Artoo let off a low whistle. C-3PO said, "Well, that extremely rude thing to say to the best of the Imperial Grand Admirals. Well, until he disappeared at Lothal, I suppose."

Rey muttered, "Funny Luke, real funny."

She could have sworn she heard his gentle chuckle.

Grand Admiral Thrawn's eyes tightened, just a bit. He said in measured tone, "I wonder Captain, what your opinion of art is."

"As worthless as you are, scum. Unless it serves the Order's narrative, it should be burned, " Captain Sarren said. He then turned to his bridge crew, "Launch Tie Fighters to destroy the freighter. Forward Batteries, fire at will. Com, end transmission."

The First Order's forward batteries lanced forth with deadly effectiveness, and they might have shattered the Chimera, if it had been there when they opened fire. Instead, just before impact, the Chimera jumped to hyperspace and was gone from in front of the First Order ship. 

"Really?" Rey said in annoyance as the tie fighters closed in, and started banking the ship away and to the left of the First Order ship. 

Poe said, "Why that clever..."

"Tie fighters first Poe!" Rey said.

"Right, don't worry about the Star Destroyer. On the Tie fighters, " He said, as the quads began to thunder.

On the bridge of the First Order Star Destroyer, Captain Sarren smiled a smug smile and said, "So much for the so-called legend. Nothing can stop us now."

Amazing, everything he said there was wrong, for behind him was the Chimera, where it had dropped out of it's hyperspace jump. The turbolasers raked the engines and back end of the ship. Multiple sections of hull exploded into fire from the breaches. On the bridge of the Chimera, Thrawn smiled in tight satisfaction, and said, "Well done Captain. Resume your normal station."

"Yes sir. Oh by the way, Owl Flight should be arriving, " Pellaeon said, "Now."

The Tie Fighters were flying evasively and just coming into range of the Milleinum Falcon, as Fin and Poe did their best to shoot them down. To call it a bad tactical situation would be to refer to a twenty speeder pile up as a 'minor fender bender.' Suddenly, there were thirteen flickers of pseudo motion as twelve fighters alike in design, but completely distinctive in coloration dropped out of hyperspace in a perfect arrow formation, with a single gray fighter at the rear. 

R2-D2 warbled. Rey said in response, "What the heck is a tie defender?"

Visually, the Tie Defenders maintained the classic ball cockpit and hexagonal window of the Tie fighter, but did not have the Hexagonal solar plates on pylons on either side of the cockpit. Instead, a central pylon extended from the rear of the ship, with three pylons emerging from it in a equilateral triangle, creating a more powerful, but more compact silhouette. Mounted on each pylon was the distinctive paired parallel elongated triangle wing from the Tie Interceptor, with twin weapons on each. The trapezoidal arrangement of the side panels of the wing were mounted out, instead if in, as the classic Tie Interceptor or even Vader's personal Tie Advanced X1 were. 

The Tie Defenders thrust forward at top speed on an intercept course with the First Order Tie Fighters. At the back of the pack was a completely different design. It looked like what the Jedi flew at the end of the Clone Wars, with the long triangular wings with blasters on the tips, a glass canopy with a hexagonal forward window. It was painted in gray and had a pair of blue stripes painted diagonally on each wing. 

In the cockpit, Poe said over the com system, "They were developed by the Empire early in the Rebellion. The quads thundered and Poe continued, "Hey Finn, shoot at the First Order only, I think these ships are here to help. Anyways, really quick, they were a pretty good fighter. A solid match for the X-wings of the day, could even launch torps or concussion missiles, but they never went into full production. I don't know why."

The First Order Tie Fighters and the Tie Defenders met in space. It wasn't even a close fight. The First Order's Tie Fighters were blasted to balls of red fire and their own return fire seemed anemic in reply. It was in that moment that Rey felt that she was being greeted in peace, even as space was full of violence and destruction. What shots hit splashed off the Tie Defender's shields. The gray fighter simply stayed close to the Falcon. Rey was sure that the pilot was wary and ready to defend, but wasn't going to engage the First Order Tie Fighters, unless necessary. She was pretty sure that pilot touched the Force somehow, but how that was, she couldn't say. 

Po said, "Sithspawn! Standard Tie Defenders weren't that powerful. Whatever those are, that's way past the specs I saw at the Academy." 

Finn said, "good, because it looks like the First Order ship is queuing up another group of their fighters to come after us."

Aboard the Chimera, Thrawn smiled in satisfaction and gave his next order, "Owl Flight, under and over on my mark. Laser and ion cannons only. I think it behooves us to save some surprises. Mark."

Aboard the First Order Star Destroyer, Captain Sarren struggled with what he was seeing. He called out, "Damage Report!"

The bridge officer reported, " Main Engines two and three are destroyed, secondary engines at fifty percent and the hyperdrive is leaking coolant and offline, multiple hull breaches and fires."

Before the captain could draw another breath the Flight officer called out, "Sir, first Tie Fighter wing is completely destroyed. The design doesn't register in our databases. Permission to launch the rest."

"How... Lucky shot" Captain Sarren lied to himself. Then he pulled himself together and said, "Granted, get those fires out and some engine power. Prepare turbolasers to return fire, and get the rest of those Tie Fighters out there! I want that ship destroyed!"

As the turbolasers on the bottom of the First Order ship reoriented to take aim at the Chimera, Captain Sarren once again realized a half a second too late that he'd made the wrong call, again. The Chimera had descended relative to his ship, leaving it below his. The Chimera shot first, raking the launch bays of the First Order's Ship and obliterating the chance to launch more fighters. The First Order's turbolasers facing left them vulnerable to the incoming Tie Defenders. The gunner's boards lit up red as most of them were knocked offline, possibly permanently.

From the Falcon's cockpit, they watched as the now defenseless First Order Star Destroyer was cut to pieces. Aboard the First Order ship, Captain Sarren ran for and ejected in an escape pod, after ordering his crew to fight to the last. It wasn't a long fight. Aboard the Chimera, Captain Pellaeon turned towards Grand Admiral Thrawn and said, "Well sir, are we taking prisoners?"

"No, I think not. Leave them, but make sure their rescue signals reach First Order space."

With a wry smile, Captain Pellaeon said, "Getting generous in your old age, Admiral?"

"Hardly, Captain. I want the survivors to give a full reporting to their Supreme Leader. It will be helpful later. Also, something he said caught my attention. Do tractor in a few pieces of that ship's deck plating and have engineering take a look at it. Oh also, have sensors scan for one more thing. " 

"Aye Aye, sir. Anything particular they should be looking for?"

The admiral told him. Pellaeon shrugged and said, "It may take some time, but I will give the orders."

The Grand Admiral smiled thinly, "In the meantime, shall we greet our guests?"

"Yes sir. Comm open a channel to the Millennium Falcon. Flight control, begin recovery of Owl Flight and the Gray Lady."

Aboard the Millennium Falcon, the remains of the Resistance gathered in the main hold. Too stunned for words, they milled about while Fin and Po raced from the gun turrets to the cockpit in time to hear Chewbacca and Rey in the midst of an argument. 

"What's going on?" said Po.

It was C-3PO who responded, "We have had a signal from the Star Destroyer. Rey and Chewbacca are currently seeking to resolve the issue as to how we should respond."

Finn arrived and said, "What message?"

Rey stopped arguing with Chewbacca long enough to sigh. Then she said, "Oh play it again already."

A small hologram of Grand Admiral Thrawn appeared in the same posture he had used while talking to the doomed First Order ship. He said, "Greetings Resistance crew aboard the Millennium Falcon. While we are secure for the moment, I do not believe it would be wise to linger. To that end, I invite you to bring that ship, with it's rather distinctive drive signature aboard the Chimera, where we can safely shut it down for now. This should confuse further pursuit. Additionally, we are prepared to attend to your wounded and have space available for bunking. I should like to discuss how we might work together to thoroughly crush this upstart 'First Order' and restore a better order to the galaxy. I have no desire to rule or master this galaxy, but an organization foolish enough to forget the past mistakes of the Empire, that I will not suffer. I warned the Emperor Stardust was a mistake. Now I return from a long journey to find these upstarts repeating a mistake I have since learned the Empire made not once, but twice. Consider this first encounter to be a show of what I can bring to your Resistance.

"Also, we are given to understand that Princess Leia Organa is aboard. Captain Pellaeon has asked for the opportunity to meet with her, if she is so inclined. We await your reply."

The cockpit exploded into an argument that rapidly spread through the entirety of the ship. Rey found herself falling silent, as if she stood in oasis of peace in the midst of a sandstorm of directionless passion. 

Aboard the Chimera, the Gray lady flowed into Grand Admiral Thrawn's ready room, where Captain Pellaeon was already seated. As was common these days, her form and face obscured by a long flowing robe with a hood that rose to two tall points on either side. She spoke quietly, "Admiral?"

"I am pleased you could join us, " he said calmly, "Did you learn anything useful?"

"I did. How did you know there was a Jedi aboard?"

Thrawn leaned back and put his fingers into a steeple. He said, "have you ever studied the art of Forn the Lesser?"

Pellaeon raised and eyebrow at the Gray Lady, who said. "I have not. Go on Admiral, you're dying to tell us."

Thrawn smiled as he keyed up holographic representations of over a thousand paintings. He said, "late in the Clone Wars, Forn the Lesser took historical accounts from every single major battle in the Old Republic. Notice anything interesting about the art?"

Pellaeon got it first. After all, he'd had at least a decade more practice in this sort of thing. He said, "Each has a dark figure and a light figure locked in a lightsaber battle. See, this one, it's composed of all the soldiers on each side. This one hides it in the way the foliage lays together, and... Ugh, okay Admiral, I'm not sure what it means."

"I suspect it is commentary on the nature of the galaxy. His race, after all, was noted as being highly force sensitive. It is likely why the planet was sterilized in the Clone Wars. However, his observation was this, in the end, there is always a member of the light and member of the dark in conflict. I simply applied that thought that it was likely that if there were such a member of the light side, he or she would likely be among the resistance. As you mentioned, your ladyship, this Kylo Ren had clearly chosen to be the Dark Warrior. Therefore, logically, if there were a Jedi amongst the Resistance, he or she would most likely be the Light Warrior. 

"I have made our best offer. From what I know of the Resistance, I anticipate that hope will win out over the fear of a reformed foe. However, it seems that the Resistance will need time to struggle together. I am estimating an hour. I do not think the First Order will respond in that time, but the bridge will remain on alert. In the meantime, I suggest we hone hand to hand in the training area. I have the assassin droids repaired from the last time."

Pellaeon and the Grey Lady looked at each other with a shrug. Pellaeon said, "Sure Admiral, we'll be right behind you."

"Excellent. In the meantime, Captain, please leave behind your blaster. Your ladyship, please leave behind your weapons of choice. Maintenance complained after the last time they had to put the droids back together, and I do not think now is the time to be stretching our resources more than absolutely necessary. Besides, the hand to hand practice is an excellent idea."

As Thrawn stepped into the adjoining room, the Grey Lady removed two lightsabers from beneath her cloak and placed them on the Admiral's desk. Captain Pellaeon took off his blaster and laid it next to the light sabers. An old, often disciplined playful side surfaced, and he said, "I don't know. I bet they'll say yes in thirty minutes."

"Oh no, rebels? They'll be arguing for at least an hour and a half before they say yes."

"Usual wager?"

"Oh you are on, Padawan! And now I will show you the power of the gambling side of the Force."

They quietly chuckled as the door closed on the training area.

\---

In a distant corner of the galaxy, General Hux and Kylo Ren stood at the view port of their newly refitted Star Destroyer, looking out over what was once a blue green jewel of a planet. A large section of the planet had been removed to create room for the works that ideally would one day transform it into the new Starkiller base. Massive tugs moved the equipment into place. General Hux broke the silence that had been pervaded the room as he said, "Beautiful, isn't it? Soon we will have a new weapon and this little resistance will be over."

"Yes, Kylo Ren said, "It's all coming together. We'll bring them here, and crush them, I expect. I'll be in my quarters. I expect to hear when the Millennium Falcon is captured."

Kylo Ren left the bridge in swift firm steps. General Hux whispered under his breath, "And once the station is complete, we won't need you."

As Kylo Ren moodily stomped his through the halls, the unlucky Storm Troopers he met along the way stood at nervous attention. He disregarded them, for he was too wrapped up in his own thoughts.

He entered his Spartan quarters, tossing aside his lightsaber and cloak. He sat on his bed and to be rather honest, sulked. He said to the walls, "Why Rey? You should have joined me. We could have ruled it all."

Then he heard a familiar voice of his father, who said, "Hey kid. Why so glum?"

\---

In the end, the argument aboard the Millennium Falcon came to a head after 59 minutes when Chewbacca let out a roar that cut off the dissenting voices. Rey had felt the strangest sense of peace about the Imperial Star Destroyer overhead. Somehow, she knew this strange Grand Admiral was exactly what they needed. Chewie roared angrily and C-3PO translated in his usual fussy way, "Master Chewbacca suggests that this bickering is ineffective and that a decision should be made quickly."

Chewbacca roared something at C-3PO, who said, "Well yes I know that's not exactly what you said, but as a protocol droid, I am sometimes required to paraphrase things more diplomatically."

Poe chose that moment to speak up, "I agree. it's decision time. So I'm putting it to the Resistance. Work with this ally or go our own way. So vote time!"

A very old resistance fighter spoke up and said, "Look, we can't trust the Imperials. They did nothing but try to stomp us out. So no way, no how."

One of the younger ones shot back, "Yeah, well none of those old Rebels showed up when we needed them, did they? Take the Deal!"

Chewbacca roared again, cutting off the argument off with finality. In the end, the vote was split down the middle. It came down the Rey who looked between both sides of the argument and said, "We should join forces. I know somehow, that it's the right path. I feel it. I feel that we have friends there, old friends. Please, trust me. Somehow, I know this is the right course, but my vote is yes, let's move forward."

With that, she turned and walked with decision towards the cockpit, as Chewbacca, Poe and Fin. C-3PO and R2-D2 followed a short distance behind. Rey reached over and toggled an open channel to the Chimera. The communications officer must have had orders to put her through, because it was the Grand Admiral himself responded, "Greetings Millennium Falcon. I take you have reached a decison?"

In the combat room Thrawn flipped the assassin droid out of the way as the voice of Rey reverberated in the room as she said, "We're in. Welcome to the Resistance, Admiral."

He kicked another droid and said, "Excellent, I shall have the docking crew bring you aboard."

He closed the com channel and said, "Rukh"

The assassin droids stopped and returned to their alcoves and powered down as the three left the room.

A short time later, the Millennium Falcon set down on the polished black floor of the Chimera. As the ramp descended, Rey, Poe and Finn were greeted by the Empire's finest. There way was flanked on either side by a double row of storm troopers, with a row of pilots parallel, and finally rows of regular crewman spreading out to the edges of the hangar. It took a moment, but Finn got it first. The Storm Trooper helmets and armor was closer to Mandalorian in design, and the armor wasn't actually white. Instead, it was a riot of carefully worked patterns of white and gray hues. He also noticed that many of the crewmen and pilots weren't human. Despite the variations, the discipline was exceptional and there was a simple pride of accomplishment on display that he'd never seen amongst the First Order. With a single blown whistle, the entire body turned in lockstep unison to face the aisle leading to the Grand Admiral and his party. The Imperial March played from the com system. 

Most of the Resistance missed all this, and instead focused on the Grand Admiral at the end of the walkway formed by the Storm Troopers. At his side was a early middle-aged man with black hair, piercing blue eyes, wearing the classic Imperial captain's uniform. Poe noticed that the captain's side arm wasn't regulation, but beyond that, he was more interested in the line of pilots behind the Admiral and Captain. The leader wore a Mandalorian pilot's outfit in a mottle of orange and blue but with Imperial rank insignia jauntily attached to her belt. The rest of the pilots wore the Imperial Pilot's uniform with the life support gear on their chest and hoses up to the rounded helmets. However, each of the uniforms were uniquely colorful, instead of the classic black.

As they approached, the Grand Admiral calmly clasped his hands behind him and said, "Greetings, Resistance. I am Grand Admiral Thrawn. If your leadership would care to join us, we will discuss our next steps over a light dinner.

He frowned for a moment and said, "but where is Princess Leia?"

Rey said with a broken heart, "She... she died before you arrived."

While his discipline held, Captain Pellaeon's face fell. Through the Force, Rey could sense that his sadness, until somehow, his emotions slid beneath a sea of peaceful focus.

But Thrawn recovered expertly and said, "Very well, we shall see that she receives proper honors."

Pellaeon leaned over and said something to Thrawn, who nodded calmly. The Grand Admiral continued, "In fact the Captain has an excellent suggestion regarding that. We shall discuss it over dinner. In two hours, I think, so you and your crew can get settled We have prepared barracks with easy access to your ship. We will provide escorts for those who wish to explore the ship. Please don't wander off, my staff might be prone to misinterpret such an error.

"Captain, please go to the bridge and take us to light speed. Owl Leader, please escort him, " he concluded.

The captain and the Mandalorian armored individual departed together via the lift at the back of the hangar. Just before the door closed, Rey thought she saw the Mandalorian take off her helmet and give the captain a hug.

\----

Kylo Ren's head snapped in the direction of the voice and he saw Han Solo as he lounged in the one chair in the room. He wore his black vest and his famous blaster was settled comfortably on his hip. Kylo Ren whispered, "you can't be here."

"Maybe it's a Force thing or maybe you're just going nuts, kid," Han replied, "But sounds like you need to talk, and apparently I'm here to listen. So talk to your old man. What's got you down?"

Kylo Ren scowl deepened and said, "You are not here! Not that you ever were. You took off on adventures and left Mom and I alone! Why weren't you THERE?"

Han considered his hands for a moment. His voice was quiet as he said, "sometimes, what sounds like a good idea in your head doesn't work out to such a good idea when you live. I wasn't a good father. Oh, I was always a scoundrel and trouble. Your mother, Ben..."

"I am Kylo Ren. Ben died with you."

"Nah, you're still drawing breath, there's still hope, still a roll of the dice that can change everything. Anyways, as I was saying, your mother was the best of us. I figured she could raise you right. Better than I could, anyways. I figured the best thing I could do is go away. I kept thinking one more scam, one more load of cargo, and I'd finally have enough that I'd be worthy of being your dad."

"I didn't need things, I needed YOU! At least Supreme Leader Snoke saw my value, my potential and elevated me to power. You just tossed me away. Now I have all the power I could ever want. I will control the galaxy and there's nothing to stop me now."

Han snorted. He said, "Oh kid, I made a selfish decision with you. Heh, now that farm boy, he'd have called it the 'dark side,' but me I just call it what it is. Me putting me first. Do you know what it cost me?"

Kylo Ren started to say something, but Han held up his hand and said, "Let your old man finish. I love you, Kid, and I wish I'd been there for you. But this power thing you think you've got, it's an illusion. Just like the freedom I thought I had. My selfishness cost me everything. It cost me the friendship of the best man I ever knew, a farm boy who was right about his daddy. Speaking of, your grand dad wouldn't be impressed by all this play acting you're doing. 

"It cost me a Princess who I loved more than anything. It even cost me my beloved ship. Lando, that old gambler wouldn't even talk to me. Only Chewie stuck by me at the end. But more than all that, my selfishness cost me you. Maybe if I'd been around, Snoke wouldn't have sunk his claws in. Maybe I wouldn't have so many regrets," Han finished, wringing his hands.

Kylo Ren stood up and shouted, "ENOUGH! I don't have time for this. I have a galaxy to rule. Enough with this foolish, empty past and enough of you!"

Han smiled a broken half smile that was almost his trademark smirk and said, "Ben, I love you and forgive you. Some day, maybe you'll forgive yourself. In the meantime, I'm going to quote my wife and her farm boy brother, 'May the Force be with you.'"

Kylo Ren was alone in his quarters.

\----

In one of the large cargo holds of the Chimera, Captain Pellaeon sat cross legged before stone wreckage of what used to be part of a Jedi Temple, his eyes closed. Thrawn entered quietly and observed for a few moments before speaking, "I have always wondered what you saw in that."

Captain Pellaeon cracked a pained smile and said, "What was, what is, what will be, what could be, and a pile of rocks."

"How utterly informative," Thrawn said dryly, "Still we have a war to win, and allies to encourage to wisdom. Shall we?"

"Yes sir, " Captain Pellaeon said as he rose and followed Thrawn out. They parted ways a short time later, Pelleaon to lead the Resistance to the meeting area, and Thrawn to make sure preparations were complete for their first war conference.

A short time later, the Resistance followed Captain Pellaeon through the bowls of the Chimera. The captain led with the calm pride of the accomplished. This may be Thrawn's ship, but the Captain had clearly made sure it ran in excess of the Grand Admiral's expectations. Rey wasn't listening. She felt someone calling to her. So she turned a corner and left the group, seeing not this ship, but the elderly wreck she crawled around on Jakku. She walked past familiar rusted bulkheads and broken displays. She ducked under dangling wiring and found herself in front of a closed and rusted door in what she assumed to be the officer's area of the ship. Her hand found the control panel, rusted and dark. She typed the code without thinking and the door wooshed open to reveal a simple room lit with a single white light in the center. She walked in and looked about the dark corners without really seeing. A soft, feminine, voice said from behind her, "Lost, young one?"

Warships aren't exactly designed for luxury, nor do they have the grand ballrooms or even a stunningly appointed foyer. Poe and Finn weren't expecting much for dinner. The cargo hold's walls weren't barren. They were covered in tapestries and artwork from a dozen worlds, including a piece of graffiti covered permacrete wall. The table wasn't some random piece of unused bulkhead replacement on trestles, but it was a wooden masterpiece that caused Chewbacca to warble in surprise, which Threepio translated as, "Wroskyr wood."

The food smelled perfectly delightful. The table conversation turned out to be perfectly awkward. After all, ex-Imperials and ex-Rebels have much to argue about, even when trying to make friends. Threepio practically blew a circuit fussing over the protocol. Artoo, on the other hand, seemed to have a grand old time engaging in a rather lengthy conversation of bleeps and bloops with a colorfully paneled R-5 unit and BB-88. Meanwhile, the Resistance mingled on one side of the room and Imperials on the other. Only Poe and Owl Leader seemed to be getting on. She had removed her helmet, showing her to be an attractive almond eyed woman in her middle years with white skunk striped purple hair. Roughly equidistant from both groups, Captain Pellaeon and Grand Admiral Thrawn watched the proceeding.

Captain Pellaeon made a sour face and said, "Well we're off to a dreadful start."

"As expected, Captain. I never imagined this would be easy," Thrawn said, "Anything else to report?"

"Engineering has a preliminary report and you were right, sir. How did you know?"

"I will explain later, Captain."

"Ah, feeling theatrical, so all can bask in the glow of your genius?"

"Indulge an old Chiss, Captain. With a bit of luck, we'll have the last pieces we need to crush the First Order. I had thought a longer campaign would be in order, but our foes have revealed an amusing oversight. All we should need are people, and a few small things. Spread the word with your old contacts, if you would?"

"I already put out some feelers. It's been a long time, not even sure if they're still around."

"We may be pleasantly surprised, " Thrawn said, then frowned slightly, "However, it does seem we're missing one. Where is the young scavenger girl? She seemed like the one most likely to get things moving."

"She's meeting the Grey Lady."

"Ah, I see. It is one of those things then." 

"That, Grand Admiral, it is."

"Do keep me appraised if it involves the Bendu or Purgil, Captain."

"Aye Aye, Sir."

In the darkened room, Rey spun to face the Gray Lady, her shrouded cowl rising high to two peaks. The Lady watched her impassively. She to Rey quietly, "Yes, very lost, I think."

Rey said, "Why did you bring me here? Who are You?"

The Grey Lady regarded her in silence. Rey could practically feel her smirk, so her anger came forth as she said, "Tell me WHY! Why here, why now?"

"Yes, very lost," the Gray Lady said. "Perhaps the answer is 'why not?'"

Rey lost herself in that moment. She reached out the Force and yanked a piece of pipe out of the wall that was about the length of her old quarterstaff back home in Jakku. She held it in the ready forward position. Rey said angrily, "What sort of game are you playing? This isn't funny. I want answers now."

A sigh emerged from her hood as the Grey Lady said, "Maintenance is going to kill me."

Rey said in irritation, "What is this all about? How about answer?"

The Grey Lady said, "It seems you wish to test your skills. Very well, young one, at your leisure."

"Fine," Rey said as she lashed out with a low sweep with the pipe. The Grey Lady leapt over the staff with ease and landed lightly on her feet, all without taking her hands out from behind her back.

"Young one, you'll have to do better than that. Surely you have been taught focus?"

As Rey lashed out with three fast staff strikes. all of which the Grey lady moved around like a dancer and laughed. Rey's fury built as she spun the staff to deliver a pair of strikes with both ends. The Grey Lady said, "Speed and agility, but your loss blinds you."

"Stop. Mocking. Me," Rey said, punctuating each strike with another missed blow from her improvised staff.

"I am not, young one, " the lady said, "but I am sad to see how much you have to learn in the patience department. You remind me of a young Padawan learner I knew so long ago. So quick to act, so slow to consider all.

"Oh, enough indulgence, " She said, ripping the pipe out of Rey's hands with the Force and catching it easily.

Rey sputtered in surprise.

The Grey Lady continued as if Rey had said nothing, "I do not mock you, merely test you. I can teach you. But you are impulsive and choose your actions poorly. The Force may be strong in you, but you have much to learn. I thought I was done, but apparently, I must now teach."

Rey said, "Teach what precisely."

"Precision, " the Grey Lady responded, throwing the pipe into the air. In almost the same motion, white blades appeared and vanished from a pair of lightsabers she had hidden beneath her cloak and quick as a flash sliced the pipe into three segments with just a whisper of motion.

"Patience," she continued, as all three pieces rose from where they had fallen to the ground. She used quick precise motions of her briefly ignited lightsaber to melt the ends, fusing the pipes into a triangle, which spun in a slow circle.

"And finally, Persistence, " she finished, tossing the triangle back into Rey's hands. Rey looked down in surprise. Rey could feel the Grey Lady's smile as she said quietly, "Ready to try that again, or are you ready to learn, young one?"

Rey dug out Luke's broken lightsaber and held it out wordlessly to the Grey Lady who looked down at it thoughtfully.

"What is broken can be mended, but what is lost is part of the Force, " she ended in solemn tones, "We will talk more. Open your heart and your mind. But first, you have a dinner to get to."

After Rey left, the Grey Lady sat down on a bench, stretched her legs. Then she pulled a pair of long blue and white lekku from her hood itched them slightly and said, "Ouch, I am so getting old."

The awkwardness was in full swing by the time Rey retraced her steps to the hold she was originally supposed to go to. The Imperials were on one side and the Resistance on the other. Both sides had apparently struck a truce that consisted of both sides eating quietly. The black haired captain looked up from his food when she walked in and said something to the Grand Admiral who rose up and said, "Greetings, Rey. Please, come and join us. Perhaps you can help us find a way to bridge the gap."

Rey was still puzzling over the strange Grey Lady, so she decided to follow up on something she had wondered about. She said, "I understand that you had a suggestion as to how we might properly honor General Leia. What was it?"

"Captain, it was your suggestion, " the Admiral said.

"Very well sir. We let her body float amongst the remains of Alderaan. Let's bring her home to her people, " the captain said, his voice shy. "It just seemed the most appropriate way to honor her."

Amongst the Resistance, there was a quick conversation, including the sounds of Wookie speech followed by quick translation by C-3PO. Eventually, Rey was nominated as spokesman who stood up said, "We agree."

\----

Through the viewports, the ruined planet that was to be the new Starkiller Base could be seen. On the deck before the view ports stood a double line of First Order officers. standing between both lines with the view ports at his back, General Hux watched as Kylo Ren stalked amongst the various captains and admirals, his lightsaber periodically igniting and extinguishing with each step. Sweat soaked Captain Sarren's brow. The captain couldn't help but wonder if he would meet his end in this moment. 

Instead, Kylo Ren turned and punctuated each word he said with a violent slash to a nearby console. "This. Is. Unacceptable. It. Is. One. Ship. ONE SHIP! And. STILL. The Resistance. Is. OUT. THERE."

General Hux spoke up, "Supreme Leader. We will find them, we will destroy them. The First Order will bring order to the universe. Our troops are worthy! Soon we will have the rest of our ships ready to take the Resistance and hold the Galaxy in our grasp. With permission, we will dispatch the worthy to seek them out.

He stopped and then General Hux continued, "And dispatch the rest."

Kylo Ren's anger flicked out like the lights on the murdered console. He snapped, "Move!"

As they filed out, General Hux said darkly, "Captain Sarren, hold."

The Captain, stopped, and tried to suppress his fear. General Hux stepped right up to his face and said, "What was that pack of lies you filed in your report? An Imperial Star Destroyer. You dare expect me to believe that that some ship, lost from before the Rebellion destroyed the first Death Star, returned from the past and just happened to show up with mystery fighters, and this so called Grand Admiral Thrawn, whoever he is, destroyed your ship."

Captain Sarren spoke fearfully, "But sir, that's what happened. I did my best."

He was answered by the sound of blasterfire. His last sight was the blurring vision of General Hux holstering the smoking sidearm as he stepped over him. Captain Sarren could have sworn he saw shock in Supreme Leader Ren's eyes. The last thing he heard before the dark consumed him was General Hux said, "No, you didn't because you lost. But don't worry. I won't."

\-- --

Surrounding the Millennium Falcon, a Trio of Imperial Shuttles descended, their massive wings rising from locked triangle shape to a vertical. The ships landed in unison onto the durasteel platform, their struts flexing as they settled. In the distance the massive gas giant was clearly visible beyond the platform's edge, clouds of all colors roiling in the light of distant star. Waiting for them on the platform was a man of dressed in impeccable blues. His salt and pepper hair and mustache were groomed to perfection. His dark skin shined in the sun and his cape blew in the wind. From the Millenium Falcon Chewbacca led the way with Fin, Poe, and Rey, who emerged last and a bit shyly. The man noted with surprise that the Imperial Grand Admiral that had contacted him earlier did not emerge from the front shuttle, which disgorged several Storm Troopers. Instead, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Captain Pelleaon, the Grey Lady, and Owl Leader emerged from the left hand shuttle with a few Storm Troopers. The other Imperial Shuttle disgorged Storm Troopers who simply joined with the others, and stood at attention. Chewbacca took long strides forward towards the man. Once beside the Grey Lady, he stopped with a peculiar look on his face, before falling back in line protectively with Rey. The impeccably dressed man said, "Welcome to Ferrous, I am the mining Administrator here, Lando Calrissian."

He turned towards the Grand Admiral and said, "You must be the Grand Admiral. We've got some planning to do, but first..."

Lando said, "Hey Chewbacca! Good to see you! How's things?"

Chewbacca roared hello and started into an explanation that trailed off. At Chewbacca's name, the Grey Lady visibly started. Rey felt a ripple of surprise through the force. Before anyone could think to act, Chewbacca took three quick strides and swept the Grey Lady off her feet into a hug. Her hood fell back, revealing a middle aged Togruta woman, her blue and white horns rising high above her head, and lekku stretching beneath her grey robes. Captain Pellaeon put his hand on the Admiral's gun hand and said quietly, "I think they're old friends, sir."

The Admiral relaxed his hand off of his holstered blaster as the Grey Lady burst into happy laughter. Lando looked confused, but decided to bluster on ahead, "Hey, so let's go inside and do introductions, shall we? I've got some really nice Correllian Ale chilling for us and some folks who are looking to sign up."

Thrawn said, "I believe that is an excellent suggestion."

Chewbacca put the Grey Lady down. As they walked inside, Chewbacca and the Grey Lady fell into quiet conversation. Well, at least on the Grey Lady's part. Rey found herself towards the back of the line, feeling a bit alone. Captain Pellaeon fell into step beside her and walked in companionable silence for a time. Up ahead, Lando had been giving the grand tour to Thrawn and said, "Now, after the fall of the Empire, the Mining Guild was seen as collaborators and no one wanted to do business with them. So me and bunch of fellow independents realized that there was a chance to take their place. We took the biggest gamble of our lives, and boy did it pay off. The Mining Alliance is made a bunch of free thinking folks. We compete against each other hard, but end of the day, we're all in it for the same thing. Selling goods at a fair price. Anyways, Cloud City was a disaster after the war so I scored this lovely operation on the cheap from the former Mining Guild owners. They were so inefficient. You know the moons? practically pure ore, and the Guild hadn't figured out how to mine 'em. Brought in Mole Miners. Remote control machines and we're pulling out tons of material the Empire wouldn't have even known what to do with and safer, too. Heck, got a half dozen manufacturers who set up shops on platforms all over the planet, and they even pay rent."

"A question, " Thrawn said, "We noticed on the way in that the gas giant has peculiar amounts of metallic particles that made scanning difficult. Is that a natural phenomina?"

"Why yes, " Lando said thoughtfully, "We use magnetic nets to scoop it out and refine it, along with Tibana and other gasses. Why do you ask?"

"I was simply curious as to if the field hiding your warship was natural or artificial."

Lando came to a dead stop. He looked at Thrawn in shock and said, "How could you possibly know that?"

Thrawn's lips pursed in thin amusement, "From a study of your offices on Cloud City I know you are a man who may risk a gamble, but always has a back up plan. I seriously doubt you would be have been as open with me if you did not have an.. 'ace up your sleeve' as it were? Secondly, it must be superior to the Chimera in terms of firepower, possibly Mon Calamari in origin. It might also be one of the larger Imperial ships that were the construction phase during my tenure. Additionally, since most of those manufacturers are shipbuilders and fighter manufacturers, it makes for an innocent way to hide something dangerous to keep the universe's scum and villainy at bay."

Lando muttered, "Remind me never to play Sabacc with you."

"I tend to prefer Dejarik, myself."

Lando sighed as he moved out, "Why am I not surprised."

Thrawn smiled a thin smile, "Though I do have in mind a use for such a phenomena."

"Oh? What do you have in mind?"

Thrawn explained his intentions and the two fell into logistical discussions and other negotiations. In the back, Pellaeon broke the silence he and Rey had been enjoying up until now first, "It gets lonely, doesn't it?"

Rey looked at him sideways and said, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I just know how it is. Suddenly, there's this grand destiny, and you just don't know what to do with it," the captain said ruefully.

"Oh, what's your grand destiny?"

"Mine? Oh, I think mine is over and done with. I'm just a captain who helped the Admiral get back from the edges of space. Over the years, I've come to see his good, his bad, and recognize that sometimes, to win, you need someone who's willing to be a villain."

Rey looked at him thoughtfully and asked, "So did you loose your mentor too?"

His voice bled sadness. "Yes. I miss him every day, even though I believe him to be one with the Force. Thrawn and I formed a working friendship over the years, but the one who taught me, no one could replace him. Not even the Grey Lady. Eh, since your Wookie friend seems to know her, I might as well use her real name. Ahsoka Tano."

She looked at him in confusion, "I thought all Imperials didn't believe in the Force."

"Funny how easy it is to label people. No, I'm not exactly an Imperial and I'm quite a believer in the Force."

"So why did you call her the Grey Lady?"

"Oh, that I blame on the Grand Admiral. When she found us, the Admiral said something to the effect of that he was all full up on Jedi already and didn't need any more. She smirked and said, 'Not a Jedi.'

"He said in exasperation, 'very well, be all mysterious, your ladyship. But if you are going to do it on my ship, you must wear gray.' she played along at first, but along the way it stuck and as we picked up people they got used to her being mysterious. Owl Leader and I really spent the most amount of time with her."

They reached a pair of double doors. Lando pushed a button on a handheld device and the doors slid open in near silence. There was a green Twi'lek in pilot's garb with a rakishly human young man beside her, and a three eyed, gold highlighted, droid with spindly arms, as well as the short, orange skinned, but ever so feisty Maz Kanata who was looking at the newcomers in curiosity with her magnified eyes, and several other humans and humanoids. Lando wound himself for a big introduction when the Twi'lek interrupted him in anger, "Thrawn, what are you doing here?"

"The same reason as yourself, Captain Sendulla. The resistance called and needed an answer," Thrawn answered calmly.

"Really? And why should I trust a former Imperial like you?" She said, as she stalked over and then poked her finger into his chest.

"Because I do, " said Captain Pellaeon, stepping to Thrawn's side.

Hera's face shown out in happy shock, chasing away the clouds of anger. She said, "Ezra?"

He cracked a half smile and said, "Hi Hera, it's good to see you."

Owl leader broke off her conversation with Poe and ran up to hug Hera.

"Sabine!?!" Hera said in happy surprise. The three hugged tightly until an ancient orange and white astromech grumpily slammed into Ezra's leg.

"Chopper, really?!? I almost missed you, you bucket of bolts," Ezra said.

Rey found herself standing next to Thrawn. She turned to him and asked, "So does everyone on your ship use aliases and if so, what's your real name?"

"Mitth'raw'nurodo,"

Rey really only had one thing to say in reply, "Oh."

Moments later, Chewbacca and Ahsoka walked in. Ahsoka quickly found herself wrapped in a hug by Hera. Finally, Hera calmed down and said, "Ezra, I want the story. Why do you trust him?"

Thrawn's lips pursed into a thin smile and said, "Captain, I have always wanted to hear that story in your words."

Ezra said, "Fine, food first, then story."

Poe laughed, "Now that's a military man if I ever heard one."

\----

Sparks flew as Kylo Ren knelt over the work bench, his hand reaching out now and again to collect a broken piece of black. Finally, he extinguished the welder, put it aside, and lifted the product of his work. He looked at his reformed helmet with grim satisfaction. He said to the empty room, "You were wrong, Snoke, this wasn't a child playing at the past. This is the symbol of my First Order. They will know fear when they see it, as they did my Grandfather, when he wore his."

"Do you know, " said Luke from behind him, "That I only saw fear when he was the unknown. When I saw him for who he was, I could only feel sad. If you put that on, I'll only feel sadness. Darkness is a choice, not a destiny, Ben. Don't let it have your destiny."

Kylo Ren spat, "My Name's NOT BEN!" He spun and threw his helmet at the voice, missing a glowing Luke by a large margin. The helmet bounced off several walls before landing to spin on the ground.

"Yes it is, if you want it. There's still good in you. I felt it back then, I feel it now. You must let it go, Ben, before it consumes you. Please don't let my failures as a mentor, my fear consume you. Please forgive, Ben. Please, just let it go," Luke said as he knelt before the helmet, "Rey will never join you now. You have to see that. She has the person who your grandfather taught to teach her, new allies, and hope. Don't give in to despair and fear. Please turn back. 

Luke paused for a moment, "Good welding work, by the way."

Kylo Ren slashed his ignited lightsaber through Luke's visage to find that he had instead cut through his helmet. He stood in confusion as Luke's soft voice said, "I said I would be seeing you, kid. I will be there, when you're ready to talk. Just remember that like the Force, I will with you, always."

Kylo Ren stood alone in his empty quarters.

\----

The dining room was brightly lit from the gas giant Ferrous, below. Cheerful voices laughed as the dishes were cleared away. Thrawn sat quietly as Maz Kanata climbed up onto the table, and focused her oversized lenses as she looked at him. She said, "mmm many eyes have I seen, but few like yours."

Thrawn took this remarkable display in stride and said, "Oh? I would had thought you would have met many Duros and Chiss in your long life."

Maz looked cracked a smile of her own and said, "Oh, don't mock an old woman. You know very well I'm not just talking about those glowing orbs of yours, but what's behind them. The penitent villain. There's not enough of those eyes in this universe. I like them. They're such a treat."

Thrawn looked thoughtful and then said calmly, "Perhaps. However, I have another matter, I might aught to mention. Given your exposure to various items in the universe, I was wondering if you might be able to find a couple of small, almost insignificant pieces of technology for me."

Maz looked surprised and responded, "What do you have in mind?"

He told her. On the other end of the table, Lando stood up, tapped his glass and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we're all ready for a yarn. Captain, the floor is yours."

Captain Pellaeon stood up, and for a moment, Hera saw the very young man she'd known so long ago. Ezra began, "A long time ago, over Lothal, I realized it was time to make a sacrifice There I faced my final test and passed. With help from my friends, we were able to call the Purgil. As they dragged us into hyperspace, the Admiral was tied up in their tentacles, where they had burst through the viewports in grabbing the Chimera. 

"After a few moments of struggle, he stopped and looked at me with that calm look of his. He said, 'Mr. Bridger, am I correct in assuming that you can not call of these beasts.'

"It being me, and feeling rather cheeky, I said back, 'I wouldn't call them off, even if I wanted to.' To that, he nodded and asked, 'If I have no intent to harm you, do you suppose they might release me?'

"Purgil are... eh, different, but I knew that they probably would and told him so. He stood very calmly for a moment, and they let him go. I suppose I wondered if he might go for his blaster again. Later I would learn the Grand Admiral isn't much on pointless heroics. Instead, he walked over to what I'd later learn was Hyperspace navigation console, looked it over while he nodded to himself, and said, 'I believe I have time for one last Holonet transmission before we are out of range. Likewise, it would be best that you stand outside the reception field, Mr. Bridger, but it best that someone bear witness.

The table was quiet as Ezra continued, "He opened a Holonet transmission to Emperor Palpatine himself. When his wizened and cloaked form appeared in holographic form, it was obvious that he was angry with the developments. The Emperor said, 'You have not called to report success with the Bridger welp, Grand Admiral. He had best be dead. Have you at least successfully pacified Lothal?'

"The Grand Admiral simply folded his arms behind his back and spoke in the calmest voice I've ever heard on facing someone like Emperor Palpatine, 'I have erred, my Emperor. I will not be able to deliver victory for you at Lothal.'

"'You dare fail or betray me, Grand Admiral, over a worthless rock like Lothal?' the Emperor said, 'Explain now, or suffer my wrath.'

"Thrawn said, 'Neither is the case. Mr. Bridger outmaneuvered me. The remains of the Seventh Fleet and myself are currently being dragged at speeds beyond the capabilities of the best hyperdrives in the Empire. I have no way to determine how long our journey will be. I can only give you our heading. Therefore, I must regretfully inform you that the fleet and myself are lost to your service for the foreseeable future. Before we loose transmission I must beg of you to cancel project Stardust. It will not serve the end you want it to. Please, the Tie Defenders are ready, they just need the resources.'

"The Emperor raised his hand in a pinching motion and in a hiss said, 'You dare lecture me on how to run my empire, welp? You will pay for this f...' At which point, we lost transmission. After a few moments of silence, the Grand Admiral regarded me silently and thoughtfully. About that time, a bunch of stormtroopers managed to get their way back on to the bridge, loaded for Gundark. There they were, pointing their blasters at me and Thrawn, like he was having a casual conversation says, 'Stand down, troopers. This is Captain Pellaeon.'

"Even in their full white armor, the stormtroopers looked baffled, but they complied and came to attention. Thrawn responded with, 'At ease, now please clear the bridge and get the reserve crew in. I will require a damage assessment, and plans for repairs on my desk in a standard hour. I do not know how much longer we will be in hyperspace, or how much of the fleet survived, so I will want repair and logistic contingencies using what we have. In the meantime, the captain and I will be meeting in my office. We have some things to discuss.'

Ezra cracked a smile and said, "Then the admiral and I struck a deal. Essentially, we would work together to get back to the Empire. If we arrived with the Empire overthrown, he would depart the ship and head home to the Chiss Ascendancy. As he put it, 'when' we returned to the Empire, he would attempt to return to it with whatever ships were left in the fleet, but would let me go my own way.

"Anyways, we were able to salvage four operational Star Destroyers, including the Chimera, and what supplies we could. When we did the numbers, we realized it was a twenty year flight home, even at best speed, and probably longer. Along the way, we made friends and enemies, lost the other three Star Destroyers. We ran into Sabine and Ahsoka along the way, about half a decade ago. I gave Thrawn the option of parting ways then, but he said he wanted to see it through. Sabine became Owl Leader, and well the Storm Troopers and Tie Defenders have never been more colorful. Ahsoka and I continued my studies, as best we could, and prepared for the day when we'd get home. 

"When we got closer to range, we found out about the First Order and the destruction of the Republic. Thrawn looked at me and said, 'What do you say, Captain, one last campaign to free the Galaxy? This Order will not stand, and I think it's time we change things.' And the rest, you pretty much know, " Ezra concluded.

The Grand Admiral had quietly put his fingers into a steeple, his face more inscrutable than usual. Hera said, "I think I get it, Ezra. But Thrawn, we have a lot of bad blood, so you'll have to pardon me if it takes a while."

Thrawn said, "Of course, I would expect nothing less."

Then Hera got a clever look and said, "So Admiral, I know you've already got something up your sleeve, care to share?"

"Oh, just broad strokes. Are you familiar with the events of Crait?"

"Yes, the Admiral was able to use her last ship as a hyperspace ram to destroy the bulk of the First Order's Fleet. Why is that so important?"

Thrawn stood and clasped his hands behind his back in what Ezra recognized as his teaching mode. Thrawn said grimly, "Consider this question instead. Why don't warships mount hyperspace capable shells, rather than turbolasers, proton torpedoes and concussion weapons?

He answered his own question, "It is not because of cost. Such a weapon would be well worth the cost of the guidance system and hyperdrive system. Nor is it technically infeasible. Simply put, for all of the Old Republic and the Empire, gravity plating remained the same. That simple piece of technology is enough to push a hyperspace accelerated projectile out of the way, no matter the size. It would miss."

Hera gave him a quizzical look. "I see, so you're saying when they developed the First Order ships they changed the plating just enough to remove that feature."

Thrawn nodded, "Indeed. We looked over it, it did make them more efficient, but created an unexpected liability. Instead of a steady flow, they turned it into a flicker. It's fast enough so we don't notice, but hyperspace does. It's why First Order ships are notable in their absence of late. They're in the process of fixing that flaw, and that flaw is what we will use to destroy them."

"Really? well we'd need something more than one worn out Star Destroyer and a few converted freighters," Hera snarked.

"And we shall have it. But all things in patience and timing, General Sendula."

Lando took that moment to interject before things got heated on Hera's part at any rate. With his smoothest tone, he said, "Well, while we're talking about trust, I think it's time I unveiled a little surprise.

He looked to a bald headed man wearing a gray cyber implant that stretched from behind his head and over his ear. Lando said, "Bring it up."

The mists outside the window began to swirl as a pair of hexagonal spheres broke through, followed by the slow rising of an Imperial style command center with the superstructure and hull forming a ship that dwarfed every ship in the fleet and even outstripped the command ship that had been Supreme Leader Snoke's personal flagship. Those old enough recognized the design of the ship from Hoth and from the final battle at Endor. Lando said with a flourish, "I give you one of the greatest weapons of Empire. The Super Star Destroyer 'Corran's Horn.'"

Ezra rolled his eyes and handed Thrawn an Imperial Credit, greeted by one of Thrawn's smug smiles. A gravelly voice spoke from behind the awestruck crowd, "Nice ship. Heard you might be needing some help, so me and some old friends came to pitch in."

Hera turned to face the purple furred speaker and said, "Zeb?!? Where have you been?"

"Oh, visiting with family, visiting the grave of an old friend, stuff like that. Along the way, a bunch of Wookies we saved off of Kessel a long time ago said they'd like to tag along and help. Sorry it took me so long, but we didn't have resistance codes to catch up with you sooner.

As Thrawn stepped around the chair, Zeb said, "What are you doing here?"

"He caught a ride with me, " Ezra said with a grin.

"Kid! I never thought I'd see you again!"

"You almost didn't, more than once, I have to say."

Thrawn said calmly, "Indeed, that incident over Korrian Seven comes to mind."

"That was NOT my fault, " Ezra said.

"Even so," Thrawn said, "If you had listened to my plans a bit closer you might have avoided the entire incident."

The spindly armed droid spoke for the first time in it's flat mechanical voice, "organic interactions perplex me so."

Threepio, who had somehow managed the grace to be quiet up until now said, "You are ever so correct. Have we met?"

"Possibly," the droid replied, "But I do not recall."

The droid then increased it's volume enough to be heard, "I am Kalini, a Super Tactical Droid formerly of the Sepratist Alliance. Now I am my own droid. I have calculated the chances of victory. Even factoring in both this ship and the Grand Admiral, we will not prevail."

Thrawn and Ezra said together and in the exact same skeptical tone of voice, "Really."

"This is why I am disregarding my calculations. Instead, I choose to join in the organic insanity, and commit the battle droids I have found and reactivated over the years. Originally, I planned on petitioning the Republic for membership. Now, I ask the Resistance for the same right. Will you grant those droids that wish it the right to their freedom?"

To their credit, the leadership didn't even have to huddle. Rey spoke for them all when she said, "Yes, absolutely, and happily."

Lando said, "Well this ought to be fun. Anyone got a plan?"

Half the room looked expectantly at Hera, who looked at Thrawn.

Thrawn spoke calmly, "I did have a plan, but Corran's Horn changes things."

"Your new flagship, Grand Admiral?" Hera said with sarcasm.

"No, General Sedula. Yours."

\----

It was a First Order Supply Depot. It was organized, it was angular and austere, and currently, under attack. A mingled flight of X-wings and Tie Defenders flashed past one of the slow moving turbolaser batteries meant to stop warships, which exploded immediately thereafter. A pair of freighters dropped out of lightspeed. One was the ever recognizable Millenium Falcon. The other was the Ghost, it's hull vaugely hexagonal in shape spinning towards the planet. Laserfire danced from both the clear turret in the center of the top and the center line of the front of the ship, destroying a pair of First Order Tie fighters. Meanwhile the Millenium Falcon's over and under quads thundered more destruction on the First Order fighters. Over the communication link, Lando shouted, "Yee Haw! Target is in sight boys and girls!"

Hera's voice came over the scrambled com, "Jacen, I swear, stop showing off or I am going to ground you from piloting my ship."

The Ghost promptly leveled off and flew more traditional evasive patterns. The forward laser cannons tore up and scattered Storm Troopers. Right beneath the Ghost's forward laser cannons, a ramp folded out and white and grey mottled troopers launched out on jetpacks. The Falcon flew sharp turns, it's quads firing general ground support, as random bits exploded in red and orange balls of flame from attacks from the Resistance's mixed fleet of fighters. Over one of the comlink, one of the troopers said, "Package confirmed. Go for the 21 pickup."

The Ghost flew inches over the massive storage containers, which were yanked skyward onto the Ghost's and then magnetically locked onto it's belly by the ship's tractor beam. as the Ghost angled skyward, the Millenium Falcon landed, a repeating blaster slid from concealment and opened fire on the First Order troops while the Resistance fighters ran aboard the ramp that dropped on landing. As they stepped onto the ramp with confidence, Zeb and Chewbacca provided additional fire support with bo staff blaster and bowcaster, respectively. As soon as the Resistance soldiers were aboard, the Falcon lifted up, it's ramp raising as it went. Po said over the comlink, "Alright boys and girls, time to go! Form up on the Ghost and let's get gone. Lando, loving the new X-wings!"

As the fighters tore skyward to clear the gravity well, their way was blocked by the arrival of a corvette class First Order Star Destroyer. Over an open channel, the First Order's captain gloated, "There you are! Supreme Leader Ren has been looking for you. Prepare to die."

Poe said over the comlink, "We practiced this. Lorran Spitball on my mark. One, Two Mark."

With that, the Tie Defenders and Millennium Falcon unleashed concussion missiles. At the same time, all of the X-wings fired their Proton Torpedoes. They exploded against the First Order Ship, temporarily occluding it in smoke and flame. As it cleared the First Order Ship remained, with only minor damage. The First Order captain mocked, "What was that supposed to do, destroy me?"

Suddenly, the ship was covered in shadow, as the Corran's Horn flew above it. As it's massive turbolaser batteries arced downwards into the First Order ship, Hera said over the same open frequency, "No, that was the distraction. Destroying you is our job."

The Ghost, Millennium Falcon and Resistance fighter craft scattered out on all sides from underneath the now savaged First Order ship, dealing a bit of additional insult to the massive injury dealt by Corran's Horn as they passed. As the First Order ship began to burn up in the atmosphere, the entire Resistance fleet jumped to lightspeed. 

\----

Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra looked out through the forward viewport of the Imperial shuttle at the blocky bulk ore freighter hanging in the star field. Thrawn said calmly, "Captain, are the modifications complete?"

"Aye Sir, " Ezra responded with absolute confidence, "We'll begin at your command."

"Very well, Captain, begin."

The Freighter stayed exactly where it was. 

Grand Admiral Thrawn checked the readouts and said, "Excellent Captain. Exactly the effect I wished to achieve. Commendations to the engineering department."

Maz Kanata's grumpy voice sounded from behind them, "Told you it'd work."

\----

In one of massive holds of Corran's Horn Rey concentrated. the broken remains of Luke Skywalker's old lightsaber hovered as Ahsoka Tano walked around it. She sighed, "No doubt about it. It's dead."

"So there's no fixing it?" Rey said.

Ashoka shook her grey hooded head and said, "No, power cells are okay, focusing chamber looks good, but the Kyber crystal is dead and gone. I think it powdered after the lightsaber was broken, pity really. Back when I started, the Jedi would go to Illum to get a new Kyber crystal."

Rey let the levitating pieces of the destroyed lightsaber drop to the ground and said, "But the Empire strip mined most of that for their Death Stars. Now what?"

An impish smile formed on her lips as Ahsoka replied, "Tell me, Rey, when you lived on Jaku, if something broke and you didn't have a replacement part, what would you do?"

Rey was thoughtful, "I'd go where knew I could find a replacement part and scavenge it... Huh.. you don't suppose any of the kyber crystals they used in the Death Stars were left when they got blown up?"

Ahsoka's smile widened. She said, "Let's go find out."

As they departed, the single red eye of a small black droid watched them. It was a ball design, similar to BB-88, but where BB-88 was soft lines, this one's rounded head was a hard trapazoid in profile. Once Ahsoka and Rey left, it rolled in another direction, extended a data probe, and began transmitting.

\----

Kylo Ren smiled at the report and turned off his terminal. Donning his crudely repaired helmet as he stood up, he strode out onto the bridge. He said in his electronic voice, "General Hux, we need probe droids dispatched to the Endor and Yavin systems, immediately. Report on the fleet."

"The cursed resistance took action at Depot 20-8-24, and we are now at least two weeks behind projections due to lost supplies. We lost the Reaver. Fortunately, the Resistance does not seem aware of the shipyard. Not that one Super Star Destroyer could get past the outer markers." 

Kylo Ren said, "I know, our spy onboard their ships has also confirmed that Lando Calrissian has joined them. He must be supplying them from his resources in the Ferrous system.

"With this we have our avenue for revenge. Take a fleet of the refitted First Order Ships and destroy it. In the meantime, prepare a single fighter transport for myself," Kylo Ren concluded in grim, mechanized tones. 

"Yes, Supreme Leader, May I ask why?"

"I am going to intercept Rey and her new master, destroy that master and then, Rey will join me as my apprentice, as she should have done the last time I offered."

General Hux had the good sense to hold his tongue on the likelihood of that last happening, and simply replied, "Yes, Supreme Leader."

"In the meantime, my spy has their Super Star Destroyer's next destination. Intercept it and destroy it."

\----

Shuttlecraft laden with medical supplies and medical personnel, X-wings, and Tie Defenders flew over the burning platforms of Ferrous. As they descended, it became clear that creature and droid alike worked to fight the blaze. The Millenium Falcon landed on a rubbled landing pad. Kalani and Lando descended from the dropped ramp together, as the grime covered heads of the various platforms came together to meet them. Lando put his hands up in surrender, "Hey, I can explain..."

The leader, a tall Durros said in regal tones, "No need. These are just things."

Kalani said, "What of your civillians."

The Duros pulled up a comlink and hit a button. The midst of the mists, a rag tag fleet of ships from a thousand different cultures rose. He said, "Administrator Calrissian, Thrawn's Seventh Fleet sheltered our civilians amongst their own refugees. We fought and lost. And now, we only want to know one thing."

Lando's original speech thoroughly derailed, he sputtered out, "Um.. what would that be?"

"What do you need from us to crush these monsters?"

At Lando's flabergasted look, Kalani said, "With your permission, General Calrissian, I would like to take this one."

\----

In a war room aboard the First Order starbase, General Hux and the conspirators met. General Hux had vetted them carefully. They were loyal to the First Order. Their viciousness and violent skill was entirely to his taste. Like General Hux, they despised Kylo Ren. General Hux spoke to his chosen conspirators, "The First Order grows weak under the thrall of this welp! He may be strong with the Force but failure dogs his every move. His obsession for Rey will be yet another layer of failure."

One of the generals spoke up, "So then, what do we do?"

"Simple, we know where she's going. We know where the blasted Relic of a Super Star Destroyer is going next. We'll take as many ships from the yard as we can and trap it at the next star system and destroy it. In the meantime, we'll take a Star Destroyer to whichever system Kylo Ren chooses and destroy the remains of the Empire's failure along with his precious Rey."

"Sir, only some of those ships have completed upgrades," one of the lieutenants said.

"We'll have to take the chance. Over time, we'll close the gap and kill the cursed Resistance and then we'll have proper leadership for our First Order."

\----

A hologram of Hera appeared at Grand Admiral Thrawn's side. Together they gazed at the star map in Thrawn's command center. Hera was actually in the ready room of her own ship. Thrawn said, "Interesting the latest reports."

Hera nodded, "We've had to cancel operations six time already, and I'm afraid the seventh..."

"Will not be necessary," Thrawn said.

Hera said, "Really? And why... Right, you were looking for something with each raid, not just the material to slow down the First Order's refits. Oh, Lando says that fabrication is complete, by the way, and he has the people."

"Excellent, with the last failed raid, you collected the information I was looking for, " Thrawn said with a thin smile. As he pressed several buttons on a nearby console, the seven worlds that Hera and her team raided lit up in red.

Thrawn continued, "I was looking for a particular ship. One that was pre refit during one raid and refitted after the second. Then, take the known range of both ships and transit time..."

Thrawn pressed several studs and six circles appeared, overlapping only on one system.

Hera said, "And then we know where the shipyard where they've been refitting the ships are. When do we destroy it?"

Thrawn said, "Soon. I have already deployed scouts along a half a dozen false vectors, let them think we're prepping the next series of raids. Perhaps ironically, our first battle had visuals of our true target, even if the location data was thoroughly corrupted. Still, the full plan will require Rey to be back with the fleet first. What is her status?"

"She's away doing something Jedi with Ahsoka. Speaking of our Jedi, how is Ezra?"

"The captain is on detached duty at the moment. He said he wished to return something to Lothal, and I chose not to argue. I also think he is, perhaps, up to one of those Jedi things."

"Irritating isn't it?"

"Do you know, I believe you are one of the few people who knows exactly how irritating it can be," Thrawn said.

"But usually profitable. Jacen has been begging for some detached duty and Zeb has been getting underfoot, I think I'll let them take the Ghost on a recon mission to check on them."

"Based on my preliminary assessment of General Hux, that is probably an excellent idea. In the mean, I have research to do," the Grand Admiral said.

"Well, then, may the Force be with you, " Hera ended her transmission with a mischievous smile. 

The Grand Admiral looked thoughtfully at the blank space where Hera's holo had been. To his mind, she was the one of the finest minds he'd ever fought against, and challenged him in ways he still thought back on. But in the mean, to win, he had to spend a bit more time with the art of this First Order, namely General Hux's.

He activated a holo, which showed General Hux, proudly speaking before a massive army of the First Order, General Hux began, "Today is the end of the Republic..."

\----

The Millennium Falcon flew into a system it had been so many years ago. Yavin's gas giant loomed large in the viewport. They flew past the various moons of Yavin 4, flying over what once hidden a now legendary Rebel base, a mostly jungle planet wreathed in storm clouds. Rey turned to her co-pilot, Chewbacca and asked, "Was it like that when it was a rebel base?"

His mournful sounds needed no translation. Even though the world was not blown to cinders, the Death Star had still brought death and destruction to once was a beautiful green marble of a world. Sitting behind them, Ahsoka leaned back and said, "I never had the chance to visit it, but Hera and I talked about it after the war. It was once beautiful.

She sighed and turned to business, "There's still plenty of debris, but it looks like many of the big pieces fell into the Yavin 4 gas giant."

"So no luck?" Rey asked in frustration and began looking up the hyperspace coordinates for Endor.

Ahsoka got a playful smile as she interrupted her. She said, "Patience young one, you must learn patience. The Force is powerful. I said most. I've got a massive ping off the tenth moon. It's a desert moon, workable atmosphere. Besides, don't you have a good feeling about it?"

Rey felt like a novice. Even with the books that Luke must have hidden on the Millennium Falcon, there was just so much she didn't know. In fact, had she known a bit more about the Force and what it would and would not do, she might have paid a bit more attention to her ship's sensors. She might have seen that one thing in the debris was not, in fact debris. It was, in fact, a First Order Viper droid. It's sensors watching the Millenium Falcon fly by and approach the tenth moon. It's antenna slid up to broadcast. Darkness would come to the tenth moon of Yavin. 

Perhaps Ahsoka knew. She understood the Force better than Rey, for she had seen so much more of the universe. If one asked her, she might have said that Darkness and Light are not opposites, but rather, darkness throws light in to sharp relief. But sometimes, one must see the darkness to remember the light. And sometimes the darkness must see the light to remember what it had thrown away.

Such thoughts went unsaid and the Millennium Falcon flew on into the atmosphere of the planet, it's massive deserts becoming seas of brown blown about by the winds. Like a twisted mountain, the wreckage of the original Death Star rose up from the sands, it's skeletal broken main dish clawing at the sky and leaving no doubt what it had once been. The dark machine of death lay slain and in it's black bones perhaps lay the light Rey needed. They landed. For Rey it was like coming back to Jakku. As she walked down the gangplank, Ahsoka came up, hugged her and said, "Well, there's your quest."

"You're not coming with me?" She asked.

Ahsoka said in calm tones, "No, this quest is the path for a Jedi to walk alone."

At Chewbacca's roar of refusal, Ahsoka put her hand on her chest and said, "you too, Chewbacca. Just Rey. She must walk this path herself."

Rey settled her blaster on her hip, checked her belt pouch, which had the repaired remains of Luke's old lightsaber, and then said, "Well I'm off."

Ahsoka gave the traditional parting that so many Jedi uttered, "May the Force be with you."

As Rey walked into the distance, Ahsoka joined with Chewbacca into the comfortable routine of covering over the Millennium Falcon with sensor distrupting camouflage. She might have drawn comfort at the sight of three brown robed figures and one in white that seemed to be quietly watching. She might have even seen the slight bluish glow about them. Though it might be impossible to say if that would have been comforting or not. 

It took several hours for Rey to find her pace as the broken remains of the Death Star loomed ever larger. It was hot and Rey wondered if all the time aboard ship had left her soft. Normally this sort of walk wouldn't have bothered her, but something about approaching the planet killer's shattered remains filled her heart with dread. Still, she pressed on to the mark. They had a rough guess as to where the original Kyber reactor chamber was, and where she might be able to find enough to power her mostly repaired lightsaber. Each step brought her further beneath the shadow of the broken machine. She looked for and found one of the launch bays where she might find easy entrance. It was a good fifty foot in the air, but that would be an easy enough climb. Rey climbed as the sun slowly set behind her. She pulled herself onto the black scratched floor of what was once a secondary landing bay. As she stood up, she shivered. It was colder in the landing bay, it's magnetic field long gone, floor lift deep within and non-functional. Rey shivered. Ancient death, destruction and despair surrounded her and crept into her bones.

From the top of the Millennium Falcon, Ahsoka used macronoculars to watch Rey climb and enter in. She said, "Well, Rey's in the thick of it now."

A soft, sad voice beside her said, "That she is."

Ahsoka turned to find herself kept company by two familiar friends as she knew them best. Obi Wan Kenobi with his hair brown smiled that sad smile of his. Then, her heart stood still, for beside him was her old master as she remembered him with his tousled brown blonde hair. His dark eyes sadder and less focused, but the smile on his lips was one she had missed so. He was not the yellow eyed avatar of hate and pain she'd met on Malachor, but the man who had once held so much promise and friendship. His voice carried great sadness, "Hello Snips."

Ashoka said, "Anakin! But how?"

Obi Wan Kenobi laughed and said, "The Force, Ahsoka, and this place has become strong with the Force, enough so we can visit."

"Not hug, though. Anakin, I heard stories as we got closer, what happened? I remember Malacor, but you are not the man I met there, " Ahsoka said.

Anakin's voice was grim as he spoke, "I remember, and no words can say how sorry I am for that. But that was only more of my fall. By the time I hit bottom I was broken and trapped in Palpatine's creation. Despair, rage and pain were all I had left. There was nothing but darkness. I was fear, and yet I was terrified and lonely, so lonely. Palpatine lied to me, of course. He said he knew how to bring my beloved back. So each act of destruction, terror and hate I wrought, I lied to myself, telling myself that was the last one, surely he'd get me my answer, get me back to her. By the point we met, I knew I was lying to myself, but didn't want to stop. Because then I'd have to admit the truth, that she was gone and it was my fault.

"What changed? I mean, you're not him anymore. I know the story is that Luke had something to do with Palpatine's death, but it's hard to know how much is truth and how much is myth," Ahsoka said, tilting her head to the side.

"In the end, Luke saw past the monster to the broken man inside. The rest, well it took time, but when it came down to it, love was stronger than hate and I personally threw the Emperor into the core of the second Death Star. It cost me my life, but I died seeing my son with my own eyes.

His eyes glistened as he spoke, "And that, was worth it. I wish the younger me knew what I learned at the last.

They all felt it at the same time. Anakin looked skyward. To an observer, his aura darkened, his voice seemed to deepen. His voice resonated in a much deeper and darker tone, "And now, I have a grandson to go have a word with."

As Rey explored the broken remains, she found much familiar in the wreckage. In some ways, the metal halls lit by her light reminded her of that crashed Star Destroyer on Jakku, but where the broken spine of that ship had let in the elements, much of this was preserved as if the Imperials had simply left behind their stations, and turned out the lights. She swept her light around a hatch that revealed a badly broken trash compactor before moving on. As she stopped to get her bearings and try to figure out what to do next, she could have sworn she caught a sight of a woman in white robes dipping around a nearby corner. As she gave chase to the mysterious figure, she said, "Wait! who are you?"

From overhead, the wreckage of the Death Star looked like a jagged metal mountain range. Kylo Ren had looked for the Millenium Falcon, which he knew was on the planet somewhere, but couldn't find it, so he looked for a place to land his Tie Interceptor. One of the ancient landing bays looked suitable, so he flew in, taking a moment to enjoy his flying between two of the spires of broken metal. It took a bit of jockeying to get his ship successfully landed in the ancient bay, but he did it with a calm skill his father and grandfather both would have appreciated. But Kylo Ren was not thinking about either of them, only about finding Rey and bringing her back to the First Order. He dismounted expertly and wandered to the middle of the derelict bay. He reached out in the force, and beneath his mask he frowned. His mechanical voice echoed out, "How strange, the Force does not move the way I would expect. I can not sense her location, even though I know she's here.

"And... I'm talking to myself again," Kylo Ren finished.

Rey ran. Her breath echoed through the empty steel walls as her feet pounded against the endless abyss of floor. As she round a corner, she careened to a stop, and found herself in a dead end facing a wall of closed and nonfunctional turbo lifts. Rey looked over her shoulder and looked about and sighed, "Now where did she go?"

She looked thoughtfully and said, "So, three turbolifts. I can open the door and climb down. It'll be a nasty climb... Or, I could think like a scavenger. Which one though?"

Then she stopped. She remembered some of the things Luke said. So she sat down and closed her eyes and listened. She felt the life even in the depths of the Empire's monument to destruction, she felt the flows of the air whistling throughout the forgotten corridors and felt the sad tale of this dwarf planet as it wept over it's injury, all this she tuned out and listened to the Force. The center one felt of dark emptiness and the left felt of open air. On the other hand the third had a familiar feeling. She felt the same gentle warmth she'd felt when she'd found the chest in Maz Kanada's castle. The soft pull that had guided her then, guided her now. She smiled as she opened her eyes and stood up. 

The Force was her ally, and a powerful ally it was. With the Force, she could rend the doors open, throw the turbolift out of her way and simply glide down to where she wanted to go. She could sledgehammer the universe into compliance to her will. 

Or, she could be the scavenger she'd been on Jakku. She reached into her belt, reached into her pouch and pulled out a power pack. With a practiced hand, she flipped open a panel and wired in the power pack briefly. The long closed door wooshed aside. She fiddled some more and the inner turbolift doors opened.

She stepped inside and with practiced hand took the internal control panel off. It took a few moments to trace the circuits, but the nice thing about Imperial construction was that it lacked imagination. She talked to herself, "follow the lady in white to a tubolift, Rey. Now all you have to do is hotwire a blaster power pack into a turbolift that's been dead for two decades, and breathe in enough life to take you to the heart of a broken death machine to find a little scrap of crystal to fix a lightsaber...

The panel threw a fat spark at the connection she made. She said, "Ouch! And not disengage the safety locks holding the turbolift in place before I get the power on. Because if I do it wrong, then I'd fall who knows how far to my death all because I cut the blue wire first.

"What could possibly go wrong?' She finished sarcastically as she did not cut the blue wire first. She linked in the power pack and as the gentle hum of an operational turbolift filled the air, she said, "There we go.

"Annnd I'm talking to myself," she finished.

Kylo Ren stalked through the hallways blood red from the light of his lightsaber. His breath echoed mechanically off the durasteel walls. The floor rang with his angry steps. For the moment, he felt a chill and turned to look behind him. Nothing but shadows and the sense of being followed.

He stopped as he ran into a bank of three turbolifts, it was the third dead end he'd run into. Once again, thwarted, he let his anger out. It was not the cold rage of his grandfather, but a younger more selfish rage. He gestured with his fist, crushing in the doors and throwing their battered and twisted remains aside. His angry breath resonated mechanically as he demanded the Force serve him to sledgehammer the emergency locked turbolift deep within the bowels of the station and lifting it up to where he could step onto it and rise towards the top, metal bent and screaming as it rose. If he had listened, slowed, and waited, he might have felt a cold presence watching him and waiting. But he didn't stop, he didn't listen, there was no peace for Kylo Ren. The irony of power is often that those who sledgehammer the universe into their preferred shape rarely have much peace. Which is a bit of a pity, because Ben Skywalker might have found some. 

The turbolift doors wooshed open, halfway, before jamming. It was enough for Rey to squeeze her way out in annoyance. With a flick of the force, she pulled the power pack free of where she had wired it. The lift, free of power, fell quickly into the station, making a loud clang as they hit. There were two cooridors stretching to the left and right from where she stood. On the wall opposite of her contained a blank screen that might have once served as a directory. She would have sworn that she saw a flash of someone in white, running down the leftmost of the long corridors, that appeared to a bit lighter. She sighed and gave chase down the corridor.

With a shriek of protest, the turbolist burst open, crashing against the wall. A cracked and broken monitor stared out at him as Kylo Ren stepped into the passage. Once the Force was no longer holding the turbolift, it fell into the depths of the station, crashing with a loud clang some distance away. Kylo Ren, in annoyance, turned and stalked down the rightmost of the two passages. He didn't even bother to check which was the darker or lighter of the two passages. Nor did he stop and listen to the mechanical breathing ringing through the darkness.

Rey stepped to the edge of what was once a shattered hallway. Now it formed a balcony overlooking the broken remains of the storage facility that used to be at the heart of the Death Star. A huge mound of crystal filled that heart below her. Twisted and broken rails held buckets, some of which spilled out their crystalline contents. If there were bodies amongst the wreckage, they had been long decayed by the weather and sun that poured in from the massive holes in what must have once been the ceiling, or maybe taken by whatever passed for a predator on this moon. Rey considered her options. she could repel down and hunt for an intact crystal, or she could try to find a way around to one of the cavernous passages that led into the main chamber. Somehow, neither seemed the right option. The crystals from below reflected the light above all throughout the room. She felt peace. In the distance, she saw the white lady sitting and meditating in another broken passageway that now opened out onto the chamber, but she couldn't make out details beyond that she had brown hair and light skin. Rey decided the right thing to do was sit, and wait. She let go of her worries about her friends and trusted they were okay. Rey released her fears for the Resistance and of the Grand Admiral's motivations. In the end, she let go of it all and listened. As she opened her eyes, she was not in the wreckage of the Death Star. 

Instead, she was sitting on the planet where she'd met Luke. Surrounding her was the tree with it's little library of books. She sat at a small table, with of all things, a glass of blue milk in front of her. Luke was thoughtfully turning a page of one of the books. He sighed, put it up and said, "He was so right, page turners, they are not."

Rey said, "Luke?!? How.. is this one of those Force things?"

"Yeah, it is. don't worry, you won't be facing the trial ahead for Kylo Ren."

"He's here?" Rey said, "Did he sense me through the Force and find me here?"

With a grave tone, Luke said, "Rey, the Force is a powerful thing, it binds you, it binds me, it connects us one to another. It connects you and Ben Solo, in ways he doesn't understand and neither do you, yet. It reaches out when you think you've hidden yourself away from everyone and sends you the unexpected. It's lessons can cost a hand, sight, or sometimes, just a bit of naivety. Sometimes it gives secrets and shows wisdom. It's mysterious and incomprehensible and familiar and well known all at once. My old master called us luminous beings, and we are. 

"But sometimes, one just needs a well placed viper droid to find what you're looking for," Luke finished with an impish smile.

Rey said, "So, I take it I missed something?"

"Yup, couple of things, really. Learn from it. So let me ask you something. Are you ready for the next step?"

Rey said, "Next step?"

"It's a doozy. It will be your time to listen and change the galaxy. And then you'll get to enjoy the joys of mentorship, if you're lucky. So the question is, are you ready to be the first of the new?"

Rey stopped and then said, "I think so... I hope so? It sounds like so much responsibility."

"The Force is like that. It is both a responsibility and a privilege. One I ran from until it was almost too late. Are you ready?"

"No, but let's do it anyways."

Luke laughed, "As you say, Rey, Jedi Knight. Now go and remake your light saber. You're going to need it."

As the vision faded Rey found herself sitting, warmed by the light of the sun and holding a small illum crystal, the size of her thumb. She pulled out the long tube that was her lightsaber, inserted the crystal and thumbed the activation switch. As the blue blade leapt to life, smiled as her face was lit by it's blue light.

With a flick of his annoyed hand, Kylo Ren tore open the door blocking his path. His lightsaber providing red light, he stalked through the door and not into more of the broken station, but onto a lit balcony tinged with an unworldly light. Luke would have recognized it as a vision from the Force. Kylo Ren was too immersed in what he saw to realize, or care.

Beyond the edge of the balcony stretched an army of white clad Storm Troopers, with ranks of black clad First Order officers at rigid attention. the First Order Walkers formed their own ranks beyond the men. Overhead three massive First Order dreadnaughts provided a backdrop against which ties owned the sky. Behind him were two ranks of Pratorean guards, splendid in their red armor and weapons. At his side stood a veiled woman dressed in gauzy white, who was about the size of Rey. The moment, he thought, was perfect. As the cheer went up from the mighty first order legions laid out before him, he marveled in it's magnificence. This, he thought, was his future.

Perhaps, just perhaps, he was right. If so, his was not a glorious future but a much darker one. As he reveled in his victory something changed. The sky grew mottled and cloudy, and angry lightning knifed a war through the airy domain. At the back of the massive First Order formation, a dark helmeted figure appeared, cloak billowing in the wind. Lights flickered on the small box in the center of the figure's chest. With a smooth motion, the figure's hands came together as fists over the top of it's head. Overhead, the outer two Star Destroyers were yanked together into the middle and all three burst into dying flames, falling and bathing the sky in reds. 

Kylo Ren willed himself to move, but he could not. All he could do was watch as the figure strode forward, it's flared helmet and distinctive face place resolving into that of one of the most feared men in the galaxy. But it couldn't be. Darth Vader was dead. And yet the figure strode further, toppling Walkers like a petulant child might toss their toys. The officers ran in fear and the Strom troopers died, their armor covered in red blood as the blood red lightsaber ignited. Waves of blasterbolts did nothing to slow the figure, as he deflected it into a lightshow of bolts that killed many more Storm Troopers. 

Still Kylo Ren could not move, as his Praetorian Guard strode forth to defend him, their assorted melee weapons energizing in red sparks. It was well that they did so, for a moment later, the Dark Figure landed in a mighty leap from the ground far before. the lightsaber again ignited. In a dark parody, the black clad figure faced the Praetorian Guard in fight just like Kylo Ren had. But where he and Rey had won a hard won victory by working togther, here it was a merciless slaughter. The dark figure stepped over a decapitated, red armored body and approached him, lightsaber lit, and held at the ready, just like Luke had held it, all those years ago.

Suddenly, Kylo Ren could move. He ignited his own saber and in anger and fear attacked the figure. Through his mask he screamed his rage and woman in white looked on silently, passive and peaceful. Blow after blow, Kylo Ren strucked at the figure, willing it to die, to end. The figure moved with a simple grace that was not like Darth Vader's powerful, slow strikes. Nor was it his famous, hard hitting style, but a softer, defensive stance that absorbed and deflected blow after blow.

Kylo Ren raged, he would find a hole in the defenses of the one who would dare destroy his dreams. He struck, again and again. Finally, the figure made a bad step, opening up a vulnerability. Without hesitation, he swung his lightsaber through, taking the head of this Darth Vader right off. The neck sparked as the body fell and the helmet rolled to his feet. 

In that moment, the faceplate exploded off, and the face behind the mask, was Rey's. 

The vision faded, leaving Kylo Ren in a darkened control station, lit only by the red light of his lightsaber. Surrounding him were the skeletons of long dead Imperials, their uniforms only tattered by dust and time. They must have been thrown from their duty stations by the violent impact of the remains the space station with the planet. As he stood there, he heard a voice he'd only heard in very old holos.

"Hail the First Order's great hero. The face, or should I say mask of their butchery. And here you stand, surrounded by like minds, " Anakin Skywalker, as he was in the Clone Wars, his red brown clothing surrounded by black armor accents that he'd worn during the wars, but outlined in blue, stepped before Kylo Ren. 

Kylo Ren said, "Vader? Are you my Grandfather?" 

Anakin snorted, "No, Ben Skywalker is my grandson. I don't know you, Kylo Ren. But I do so recognize you, kid. You've walked the path I walked. The Dark Side makes all the promises, 'I can give you power, I can give you might, I will protect your loved ones, I'll take you out of someone else's shadow, don't worry about what you just did there, the ends justify the means.' so many sweet lies. When I fell, I fell for love. Why did you fall again? Oh right, because your uncle had a moment of weakness and his fear fed yours."

Kylo Ren found his voice, "Then why are you here, it can't be just to be insulting."

"No, I'd like to save Ben Skywalker, if I could. The man who knew my son in life missed out on so many opportunities to do and be good. Kylo Ren has already walked the some of the same path. He will suffer so much loss, unless he turns and doe so soon.

"It gave me such a pleasure to watch him defeat you from parsecs away, but then a father can't help but be proud of his son when he does well. I want to be proud of Ben Skywalker, but I can't. Just as I was never proud of Darth Vader, " Anakin said.

"Why not!?! He was powerful, everyone feared him! He destroyed his enemies without mercy and with great skill. His power with the Force was beyond compare."

"Oh stop fan boying. You only see the surface, just like you did with your Uncle Luke and just as you did with your own father. The Force is so much deeper than that. If you had looked beyond Luke's lightsaber, you'd have seen his fear, his fear that you would be the next dark lord. Fear the Emperor and Darth Vader created, fear I regret. He didn't want to hurt you, you idiot. He loved you, so much and fear tore him apart. You couldn't see it. Instead, you saw your fear and murdered everything good you could have had. You could have had friends powerful in the force, a family who would have surrounded you in love, and so much more. Well, I suppose congratulations are in order. Just like Darth Vader murdered his own wife. All you lack is a master to leash you in a cage of pain and machinery. Or maybe just mental pain, telling you that you're unworthy. I bet he did, too. Telling you that you weren't deep enough into the Dark Side, telling you that you weren't living up to a legacy that is my shame. Mocking you at every turn to get your obedience."

"Isn't that what you're doing?"

Anakin sighed deeply and said, "No, I'm trying to get you to wake up. I'm trying to get you to look at what you are doing and who you are hurting, and make a change. I want you to turn away from the mistakes I made, so you don't end up pain wrapped in metal, lying to yourself that it was all worth it. Because in the end, the tryant's way never is."

Kylo Ren could not find words in that moment.

Fortunately, Anakin had a few last words, "Ben, stop seeking the Dark Side. Don't make my mistakes! Please. But in the end, may the Force be with you."

Anakin's blue light faded, leaving Kylo Ren surrounded in darkness, the dead, and in that moment, regrets.

Rey left the broken husk of the Death Star in the sands behind her. Suddenly, she heard it, the distinctive scream of First Order Tie Fighters, she glanced about and saw one of their Elite Tie Fighter racing towards her. Bold and unafraid, Rey ignited her newly rebuilt lightsaber and prepared to do battle.

Then she realized what an incredibly stupid idea that was, turned off her lightsaber and ran perpendicular to the flight of the incoming Tie Fighter as it moved into a strafing run. Suddenly, it exploded in a ball of flame as the nearby Millenium Falcon lifted off the ground, shredding it's camouflage cover as it did. With the ramp still down, Rey could see where she needed to get. The problem was there were four more First Order Tie Fighers closing, of the same model. She had mere moments.

"Trust what Ahsoka taught you about the Force, Rey. Let it guide your actions and enhance your movement, Rey, " she muttered to herself as she ran. When an incoming Tie Fighter laser blast blew up a nearby dune and showered her with debris, she said, "Don't get shot by the Tie Fighers, Rey."

She could almost feel Ashoka urging her on as the ship lined up parallel to where she was running, all the while trying to shake the First Order starfighters. She just had to make the jump, but not get shot while doing it. Great, she'd barely figured out how to make Force leaps, in practice. Not that she could do it consistently, but this a really different wreck to scavenge. Worse, the Falcon was tough, but it was short a gunner, so Chewbacca was having to make tight turns and stay low to the ground to keep the belly protected, while Ahsoka worked the top turret, and the First Order pilots knew it. If they could drop in at the right angle, they could shred and down the Falcon without significant risk to themselves. Especially if they could line up a lucky shot where the ramp was down.

Kylo Ren greeted the bright light of the desert with an electronic snarl. He'd gotten lost in the interior of the defunct station and emerged not in the landing bay where his starfighter was supposed to be, but instead in what was supposed to have been an observation tower on the skin of the Death Star. It's massive windows long shattered, and royal command chair wrecked by the elements. From his vantage point, he could see that everything with his plan had gone awry. This was supposed to be a solo mission. Instead, he had an excellent view of four of the First Order's finest pilots were closing in on the Millennium Falcon with intent to kill. He raised his com to warn the pilots off. Instead, he found that they were not on the standard command channel, and operating on an encryption key he didn't have. As he watched, another group of four Elite Tie Fighters streaked towards the stricken ship. Another group of three starfighters flew past on another vector. They were going to envelop the freighter and shoot it down. He found himself wanting Rey to make it aboard the freighter, even if it meant loosing her. Suddenly, she leapt further and higher than humanly possible, landing on the ramp. She landed poorly as a blast shook the Millennium Falcon. She fell, barely grapping the ramp strut, swinging wildly, as the second and third groups of Tie Fighters closed in.

Rey desperately held onto the strut, grunting as she tried to pulled herself aboard. She saw four Tie Fighters racing towards her. She could see them, and she desperately pulled to get aboard. Ahsoka and Chewbacca were too busy to help. Worse, she didn't quite have the upper body strength to get aboard with the wind howling against her and the ship bouncing from the fire it was taking. If she could get a moment of stability, she could do it, but it looked as if the First Order wasn't about to give her that moment. 

Luckily, or perhaps, as the Force willed it, the First order was overruled. Suddenly a pair of bright flashes from proton torpedoes exploded, and two of the starfighters weren't there anymore. The other two had to go evasive to avoid bolts of red descending on their position. Rey took the momentary reprieve to pull herself aboard and slam the door and ramp close control. Her last view as it closed up was the Ghost heading past on an almost insanely steep angle. She might have even sworn that she saw Zeb's purple furred form in the top gunnery bubble. 

As she ran through the shuddering ship, she got to the cockpit to find Chewebacca flying for all he was worth. The boards were lit with red lights in all the wrong places. Beyond the view port, she could see the ground rushing by at a perilous rate, and the Ghost was in the process of reorienting itself and coming alongside the Falcon. She clambered into the pilot seat as fast as she could and got strapped in and on coms as fast as she could. As she got on coms, she heard the calm voice of Captain Pellaeon say, "and the moment she's in the pilot chair, let me know, I think Jacen and I have a way we can beat them."

"I'm here," Rey said, "what do you have in mind?"

The captain was calm as he said, "Reach out with your feelings Rey, I want you to listen to Jacen's feelings. Work and move with him. Together, we will win through."

Kylo Ren found himself with the best seat in the house to watch the Millennium Falcon and Ghost do something skilled pilots had to train together for years to do in carefully scripted timing. They both flipped on their sides, putting the bottom of the Millennium Falcon within what looked to be millimeters of the bottom of the Ghost. Together, they flew, twisted and turned as the freighter's cannons fired. Kylo Ren was in awe of the flying. the topside quads of the Falcon and the front dual cannons of the Ghost seemed slightly more accurate than the topside cannon of the Ghost, but he doubted the First Order Pilots could tell that. As he watched two more exploded into balls of flame and a third hit an outcropping, exploding messily. Watching was the only thing he could do, even though he wanted to do something. He could do nothing but watch as the Falcon and Ghost flew skyward, disappearing into the distance, with fewer and fewer fighters in pursuit.

The Millennium Falcon and Ghost broke the atmosphere, leaving the last of the First Order's Tie Fighers burning in their wake. Highlighted by the curve of the moon's surface, an Imperial Shuttle flew to meet them. From the nose gunner station on the Ghost, Captain Pellaeon opened a com signal to the Shuttle and said, "One Pete, what's the status."

A mechanical, but oddly nasally voice replied, "Well, there's a pocket carrier the First Order fighters launched from in orbit, your cargo is restless, but other than that, things have been quiet. Orders sir?"

"One moment, One Pete. I need to consult with my allies. I have an idea, but it's kind of crazy."

"Roger Roger."

Ezra added the com frequency of the Falcon and the rest of the Ghost to the transmission and said aloud, "Ashoka, Rey, are you there?"

A dull roar confirmed that Chewbacca was there as well as Ashoka said, "I'm here, Ezra, what's on your mind?"

"Well, seems to me there's this First Order carrier without any ships aboard. It might be primed for a change in management, " Ezra said.

Zeb chimed in from the upper gun turret, "Oh, you mean like we did over Ryloth?"

"Yeah, exactly! I think bringing back a spare carrier might not be a bad idea."

Ahsoka said, "So how do we keep it from jumping to hyperspace when we approach."

Ezra said, "We'll have to do a bit of staff changes, but I have a plan."

Jacen sighed, "Mom told me what happened to the Phantom on one of your plans. She'll blame me if we loose another."

"Don't worry, I've got a plan."

It was a short time later, aboard the command deck of the carrier, the com officer stood up, resplendent in his First Order cap and uniform, and said, "Sir, we have a message from incoming shuttle."

The Captain turned from his station and said, "Sensors, do we have it on scans?"

"Yes sir, it's coming in fast, but it's being pursued. The drive signature of the pursuer matches one of the freighters that have been harassing our shipyards, the Ghost."

"Arm the Turbolasers, all hands to battle stations, shields up, and I'll take that com."

A nasal voice came over the coms, "First Order Carrier, this is First Order Supply Shuttle DX-311."

"This is First Order Carrier, 'Thunderstrike'. I don't show you on our manifests. Send your authentication codes."

The reply came back garbled, as if the sender was crinkling a piece of thin metal and talked gibberish. The Captain spoke again, "Shuttle, please transmit again."

"Taking.. .. heavy... fire, coms... ...amaged, " the shuttle responded. 

"Shuttle, identify yourself now," said the captain. In military parlance, the word 'now' has special meaning. In simplest terms, it means the party using it is preparing to blast the party not complying to atoms.

Suddenly, the sensor officer spoke up, "Sir, that's not a First Order Shuttle, it's silhouette is almost consistent with an old Imperial Shuttle, but the mass ratings are off."

Before the captain could reply, the Shuttle fired retrothusters and slammed to a quick stop, as the Ghost, which was held in the shuttle's tractor beam whipped around, presenting it's rear end to the carrier. A small shuttle pod launched out of the back of the Ghost and thrust full speed towards the second of four bays below the triangular hull of the carrier. Turbolaser cannons fired behind and around the pod, but it flew expertly between the blasts, landing successfully in the bay. As it skidded to a halt, general quarters resounded as the captain's voice resonated with authority, "All Stormtroopers to Bay two, stop the Resistance fighters."

As the stromtroopers arrived, positioning themselves with their heavy blasters towards the rear hatch of the shuttle pod, the nasally voice of the Imperial Shuttle pilot came across the Millenium coms with, "Ph.....ne.. ... Mpl.."

Ezra's voice came over com, "One Pete, you can stop that, now."

"Roger, Roger, Ahem, Phase One complete."

Rey pulled the release and the Millennium Falcon fell away from where it had been secured to the bottom of the Imperial Shuttle, turning flat and using it's impressive acceleration to charge the fourth bay, as the Imperial Shuttle and the Ghost both pulled hard turns away, the Shuttle taking a few hits in the process, leaving it trailing some real fire. The Millennium Falcon landed aboard the carrier hard skidding in almost sideways, it's radar dish coming right up to an overhanging catwalk, and stopping with a soft ping against it. The ramp dropped and as Chewbacca emerged, he fired a bolt form his bowcaster, exploding a nearby fuel barrier. As several First Order soldiers grabbed for their blasters, Zeb stepped off the ramp, he opened fire on them, sending them dashing for cover. Over the coms, it's pilot said in nasal tones, "I don't think the cargo liked that, Captain."

Ezra replied over com, "Just get clear, One Pete. We've got it from here."

"Roger Roger," The shuttle pilot said.

As Chewbacca and Zeb kept up their fire, Captain Pellaeon stepped off the Millenium Falcon with the calm stride of an Imperial Officer, carrying his unusual blaster pistol in hand. With quick precision, he fired on the various running First Order officers, knocking them out with balls of blue light. He fell in between Chewbacca and his left and Zeb on his right. As a half dozen First Order Storm Troopers ran in from the rear of the bay, he switched a button and a blue blade shot forth from the top of his blaster. With a quick sweep of his blade, he parried the blasts from the Storm Troopers. Zeb and Chewbacca responded in kind. The Storm Troopers didn't have a Jedi helping them, so it ended considerably less well for them.

Through the window of the Millennium Falcon, Rey sat frustrated, watching as the Captain, Zeb and Chewbacca entered the doorway, clearing their way out of sight. In the back of her mind, she heard the soft voice of Luke, saying, "Patience, young one, you must learn patience."

"Yeah, how'd that work out for you?" Rey said sourly, crossing her arms as she sat in pilot's chair.

She heard his soft laughter, and heard him say, "About the same, Rey, about the same."

In the other bay, the First Order Storm Troopers turned and scrambled towards the exit. Unheeded behind them, the shuttle pod's ancient ramp dropped and a pair of white lightsabers ignited. 

To forestall the growing panic on the bridge, the captain said, "Don't worry, we have the strongest troops in the galaxy."

In the cooridor below, a First Order Storm Trooper threw a hard punch at Chewbacca, who caught it in his furred hand, twisting it to the side. Beside him, Zeb snapped his bo rile from blaster to staff mode, catching the First Order Riot Trooper's shock rod and then drove it hard into the ground. Letting go of his staff from his left hand, Zeb grabbed the Riot Trooper by the shoulder and rammed his head against the one held by Chewbacca. Both troopers dropped.

The captain continued, "They have a firm grasp on their weapons and will put down any that fight against them."

In between Zeb and Chewbacca, Ezra picked his moments to switch between lightsaber defense and using his blaster. Chewbacca fired off another explosive quarrel from his bowcaster. Suddenly, a bunch of First Order blasters came sailing over their heads as an annoyed Ahsoka commented, "Hey, watch the explosives!"

Chewbacca warbled an appology and Zeb said, "Yeah, I know, but it's just so fun punching out bucket heads."

Turning to the forward viewport, the captain continued his speech, "And even if they were to be subdued, even then, the bulkhead would prevent entry and we would be able to do our duty for the First Order."

Behind him, a glowing pair of white lights and a blue light pierced the door, swirling into a large circle. Then, some unseen force threw the plug of a now circular doorway onto the bridge. The captain turned and reached towards a control on the bridge. 

But he never made it. As an unseen force grabbed him, and threw him into a nearby seat. Ezra's hand was out in a firm fist. Ezra said, "Captain, take a seat. We need to have a few words."

The captain said, "I have nothing to say to you."

Waving his hand Ezra said, "You will heed my voice and do as I ask."

Much to the shock of the officers held at blaster point by Chewbacca and Zeb, the captain said, "I will heed your voice and do as you ask."

Ezra waved his hand again, "You will tell me how to disable the self destruct."

"I will tell you how to disable the self destruct, " the captain said, removing his command cylinder from his pocket, "Here, take this and insert it into that console over there and twist to the left. It will deactivate the relays. They'll have to be hard reset at command. It's a safety precaution to prevent terrorist actions when a ship is in space dock for maintenance and repair."

Ezra took the cylinder from the captain's hand and plugged it into the appropriate spot, and twisted it. As the command system shut down, Ezra turned and waived his hand again, "you want to keep being helpful."

"I want to keep being helpful."

"You will tell me about your ship's tracking device and how to disable it."

"Oh sure, it's hardwired into the power conduit to the left most engine. You'll just have to shoot it to deactivate it, but if you try to cut it out, it'll short out the thrusters, " the captain leaned close and whispered loudly, "But don't tell anyone, it's a SECRET."

Zeb grinned and said, "Don't worry, captain, the secret's safe with me. Hey Chewbacca, you got things covered here?"

At Chewbacca's roared assent, Zeb said, "Alright, I've got me a doohicky to blast. Be back in a bit."

"Thank you captain, you've been very helpful, why don't you sit over there?" Ezra said, not quite keeping the impish grin off his face.

"I will sit over there, " the captain replied and did so. 

Rey finally entered the bridge of the carrier. She looked around at the shocked bridge crew. She smiled and said, "For those of you who want off, we'll drop you off at the next habitable planet. For the rest..."

She paused and said, "Welcome to the Resistance."

The captain started in his chair where he had binder cuffed himself, "Wait, what?!?"

\----

Kylo Ren stalked onto the command bridge of the First Order Dreadnaught. General Hux had a moment of surprise as he was dragged across the bridge into Kylo Ren's waiting hand. Kylo Ren's voice was filtered through the electronics, rendering his tone flat. He was anything but calm when he spoke, but he sounded it when he said, "I did not require reinforcement, General."

General Hux barely managed to hold his composure as he rasped out, "They were merely ordered to protect you."

It was a lie, and Kylo Ren knew it. The problem was, he needed Hux, but he needed him obedient. So he applied pressure and whispered into Hux's ear, "You get one. Do it again at your peril."

Kylo Ren dropped a gasping General Hux to the deck, and said flatly, "Give better orders next time, General. "

As Kylo Ren stomped off the bridge to his ready room, General Hux contemplated the near miss. When Kylo Ren re-emerged in an almost chipper mood. He said, "we have them General, or we will soon. Begin actively looking for the Chimera. Once we have that ship, I'll have my prize, and then we'll have the galaxy. In the meantime, I will want my fighter ready to go at a moment's notice, and we will both be personally overseeing the refits to the fleet."

\----

Poe met up with Fin amongst the organized chaos of the main hangar bay of the Corran's Horn. There were droids everywhere, not just the astromechs that helped pilots like Poe, but massive numbers of ancient Clone Wars battle droids doing chores and traveling through the bay. There were so many droids about, no one would notice one extra. The growls and cries of Wookie argument resounded from one corner of the bay, providing a steady rhythm to the syncopation of welding torches, cutters and a hammers all getting the fighters ready for the next sortie. Poe looked out from their quiet eye of the storm, and said, "Hard to believe the Grand Admiral thinks we're ready."

Finn clapped Poe on the shoulder and said, "are you going to be able to fly that fighter with those modifications?"

Poe laughed and said, "You know me, I'm looking forward to the challenge. Seriously, any idea why Thrawn wants these modifications?"

Finn shook his head and said, "No clue. We've been doing ship breaching drills. He's a clever one, which worries me."

Poe looked thoughtful and said, "Yeah, I hear you. General Leia and I used to walk and talk about the clever commanders, and it's not always positive. Thrawn had a reputation of being a bit of a maverick, but he almost never missed. I looked over his record. He did some crazy stuff, but it always worked.

Poe stared out at the bay, his mind on dozens of Resistance bombers burning in flame, and Leia shouting ignored orders into his ear. Finn could barely hear him say, "What did he learn that I missed?"

Finn put his foot up on a nearby barrel and rambled, "We never got to look at the past, not really. First Order teaches utter obedience. No thinking for yourself, no questioning orders, or you get reconditioned, until you obey without thought. Even your words are geared to thinking of the Order the way they want. The Resistance is different, y'know? It's like you think for yourself, but you choose to follow. I suppose you could always ask him, or that Captain that works with him, Pellaeon."

There was a low roar and an individual in brightly colored individual in brightly colored Mandalorian pilot's armor descended from the catwalk on jetpack right in front of them. Landing, she took off her helmet and shouted to a bunch of soldiers on the catwalk wearing similar jetpacks, "Remember, the key is to feather the thrusters together at the last moment and cut it off a half second before landing, or you might bounce off and loose control. Cut off too soon and you hit the ground and break something. Also, remember in zero gee, you do not have gravity to fight against, so you'll have to roll and fire your thrusters at the half way point to slow, or you risk coming in too fast. Jet pack use is about precision and concentration. Get careless and you risk breaking every bone in your body. Okay, Arnold, you're next!"

She turned, her blue hair with light white highlight tossing as she moved her head and said, "Hi boys, how's it going?"

Finn said, "Pretty good, I guess. We're just kind of getting ready for this. How's it going on your end?"

From behind her, one of the Storm Troopers from the catwalk suddenly lost control with a loud rolling 'woah' as he swirled out of control and landing with a big crash. Sabine rolled her eyes and said, "Could be better, but we're getting there."

She turned and shouted, "Arnold, I said FEATHER TOGETHER, not only one! Now get up there and do it again!"

She sighed and turned backed, looked closely at Poe and said, "Hey what's going on? You're looking down."

"Oh, just... I screwed up bad at one point, and I wondered how Thrawn could buck the system so well and go with his gut."

Arnold managed to actually land correctly this time, and after Sabine yelled for the next one to do it, she turned back and said, "Thrawn is a one of a kind."

"Yeah, I get that, I just don't get how, " Poe said.

Sabine laughed, "So you know some of the crew used to be Rebels back in the days of the Empire, right?"

Finn perked up, "Yeah, I got that. How does THAT work?"

"Very awkwardly, at first. Bottom line, Thrawn is absolutely dedicated to the cause, but he looks first. He studies, he reviews, and he's very good at reading people. When he's your enemy, he's the worst sort, because he'll study everything about you to figure you out, then make plan built on your weaknesses. Then he'll make a back up plan, " Sabine said her brow clouded in thought, "When we tangled, he'd let us have an occasional win, if only to bring him to a bigger goal, and he had no limits on what he'd do to get it achieved."

"Impressive," Poe said, "sounds like he was a heck of a threat."

"Nightmare, more like it. There were only two reasons they got off Chopper base alive. The first was because one of his ship commanders got greedy and made a mistake when a great friend sacrificed his life and ship, and Ezra was able to capitalize on it."

Finn asked, "what was the second?"

"Thrawn is impressive, but he's not omniscient. Kanan was a great Jedi friend of mine. Well, he went and pissed off a very powerful force entity that happened to call that planet home. It proceeded to tell everyone there to 'get off his lawn', with lightning and one heck of a storm."

Poe said, "Yeah, that would do it. How common are those kind of things?"

"Hang around with Jedi long enough," Sabine said with a smile, "you'll find out."

Finn leaned forward and asked, "So what changed? How the heck did you end up as allies?"

"In the end, it was Ezra, " Sabine said, "Somehow, he and Thrawn made friends. By the time Ahsoka and I caught up with him, they'd been working together for years. Somehow, Thrawn taught Ezra to plan better, and Ezra knocked some of Thrawn's hard edges off and got him thinking about the price of tyranny. I like to think we finished the process."

"Still the same level of nightmare?" Poe teased.

"Oh more so, I'd say. He learned humility. The thing is, now he's the bad guy's nightmare," Sabine laughed. Then she sighed, "Well this has been fun but back to work. Stand back, boys!"

With that, Sabine fired off her jetpack, landing effortlessly on the catwalk, and went back to training her troops.

In the crowded and busy hangar, no one noticed an extra jet black and silver droid rolling across the floor and slip into turbolift. It's red eye watching the goings on.

\----

Kalani strode onto the bridge of the Chimera with Maz Kanata quickly following his spindly legs. 

Kalani spoke in mechanical tones, "Greetings Grand Admiral. I have reviewed the ship roster, and all is according to your specifications."

Grand Admiral Thrawn turned from where he was consulting with a storm trooper sitting at the gunnery section and said, "Greetings, General Kalani. Maz Kanata, what brings you here?"

Maz twisted her oversized lenses and looked at Thrawn thoughtfully, "Oh, Quartermaster things. Got that last item on your list. It costs more than you'd hoped, but we got her."

Thrawn smiled thinly, "Well, show her in."

At Maz's signal, a cloaked figure walked slowly up to the Grand Admiral and company. Thrawn gently lifted the hood and looked at the face beneath. He smiled calmly, and perhaps in another world, one would have heard a pipe organ playing.

"Yes, this will do nicely, very nicely indeed."

"Grand Admiral," the Super Tacitcal Droid continued, "I am concerned with the potential costs of this operation you've planned. When will I get full details?"

"In due time, General, in due time. Rest assured the rewards will more than outstrip the costs."

Aboard the Corran's Horn, the bridge doors opened to reveal a careworn, but triumphant Rey as she walked on the bridge. Hera exited the crew pit where she had been consulting with one of the new bridge officers Thrawn had transferred from the Chimera, her green head tails bouncing as she climbed the steps. Beyond the viewports, the Resitance's fleet had grown by one. She couldn't quite keep the smile off her face as X-wing fighters practiced in space. As she strode up to Rey a small light on a nearby console caught her eyes. She sighed and turned to the flight officer who was down in the crew pits and said, "Run Freighter evac scenario, again."

As the Flight officer snapped out orders Hera walked over to Rey and said, "I take it things went well with your little trip with Ahsoka." 

Rey nodded, "Very much so. She taught me much."

Hera grinned, "including how to hide your presence in the Force?"

Rey frowned, "Right... What are they up to out there?"

"Part of Thrawn's big plan. Do you know he found an old cloaking device?"

"Seriously? What did he want with that?!?"

"He likes to keep his little secret, but it definitely involves that freighter out there," Hera said, gesturing to an old freighter at the center of a formation, where two dozen remains exploded out of the bays of the freighter and moved out in a simulated attack. Then she sighed and said, "So time for other news. Thrawn wants you aboard the Chimera for the future. He says your Jedi abilities will make it perfect for coordinating our big attack on the shipyards."

Rey said, "Really? Why now? What about his Captain Pellaeon?"

"Rey, trust me on this one. We can't afford to wait much longer, so any day now. Meantime, tell me all about what a destroyed death machine looks like."

As they fell to trivialities, a small BB style droid, in jet black with a glowing red eye rolled away, moving onto the open lift. It descended into the bowels of the Super Star Destroyer and into an unused cargo bay. It stopped, extended it's data probe arm, linked up and began transmitting. 

Aboard the First Order Star Destroyer, General Hux hunched over the black topped holo table and said, "Play that part again, slowly, audio off, and punch up the view uppper left, there. Yes, that's it."

Behind Rey and Hux, the freigher came into view, showing the low quality of that part of the recording. But it was enough. The fighters burst out of the freighter, and maneuvered quickly out in a strike pattern. General Hux grinned wickedly, "I see what he's up to. Oh this is clever."

Kylo Ren spoke in his electronic voice, "Enlighten me, General."

"It's simple, they take a freighter, have it drop out of hyperspace in our ship yards. Probably fake a distress call to get in our perimeter. There, the fighters launch out of the freighter and destroy our ships in dry dock."

Kylo Ren said, "Wouldn't our perimeter sensors pick up fighters aboard this modified carrier?"

General Hux got a thoughtful look, which honestly looked odd on him, and said, "No, that's what is so brilliant about it. They found a Clone Wars era cloaking device. Generally, the problem with a cloaking device, a good one is that it's a two way hyperlane. They can't see you, but you can't see them. So if you know where they are, they're an easy target, and they can't target you. But, if you mount it on the inside, say in the massive cargo bay, it would show as empty. Completely empty. So as long as you gave a reasonable reason why your engines are running so hard, which I can think of two, accident or pirate attack, no one would be the wiser until it was too late."

Kylo Ren's electronic voice couldn't quite conceal his amusement, "I think we should let it through the perimeter, when it shows, and then destroy it within sight of it's goal, and dash the hopes of this Resistance. In the mean, we should make sure to stay with the fleet in dry dock. I will communicate with my agent with the Resistance Fleet. Soon, we'll have them."

General Hux agreed, like the good, mad dog he was, "Soon we'll destroy them and restore proper order to the galaxy."  
In that forgotten cargo hold aboard the Corran's Horn, the black BB droid extended it's data probe and locked into the data probe. The data probe turned once, twice and then the data probe broke off the BB droid when it was hit by a white and orange blur tweetling a variant of the classic 'Charge'. it rolled back and tried to reorient to extend a shock wand to fight back, but the ancient droid had the advantage, it's orange flowerpot helmet extended a second pair of manipulators which proceeded to engage in a slap fight with the black droid's extended shock wand. The orange and white droid resolved in the confused BB droid's photoreceptors as Hera's pet droid, Chopper. The outer door, that the BB droid had left open suddenly closed. The sounds of a droid's anguished scream and the sounds of electrical crackling filled the empty halls. 

\----

The Resistance's fleet was assembled. The Chimera and the captured First Order Carrier, newly christened, "It's Ours Now." stood out as the only triangles in a mix of organic shapes of Mon Cala construction, left over long spar Corellian Corvettes, far too many freighters turned pocket warships, including the Millenium Falcon, with the needle like X-wing fighters practicing maneuvers with the tri winged Tie Defenders, and of course, one very old, very special Bulk Freighter. Sunward to them all, the Corran's Horn dwarfed them all.

The view of the fleet aboard the Corran Horn's ready room was spectacular. Finn and Poe sat next to each other in a crowd of pilots with Rey beside them. It was a mix of orange jumpsuits with white vests, the colorfully decorated Imperial Flight Jumpsuits, B-1 pilot droids with their thin, long arms and long nosed look, and a variety of astromech droids. Lando Calrissian, resplendent in a black cloak with gold under layer, was having a quiet conversation with Chewbacca. The room had been redone from Imperial Gray to a much brighter white. Hera was leaning quietly against the back wall of the room, after managing to discourage Lando from standing next to her with an arch look. Zeb in his purple furred flighting glory stood on her left. Sabine sat in her traditional Mandlorian pilot's armor amongst a knot of similarly armored, if much less colorfully decorated people. Ezra almost cut the look of an Imperial Captain with his grey uniform perfectly pressed, but without the traditional cap and unusual sidearm.

At the front of the room, the pedestal where Grand Admiral Thrawn stood was lit around the perimeter, a luxury the Empire would have deemed a waste. However, Ezra had never seen 

Thrawn clasped his hands behind his back and spoke calmly, "Good evening. For those of you who do not know me personally and I have not met, I am Grand Admiral Thrawn. Our mission today is the destruction of the First Order's fleet capacity."

With that he clicked a small controller in his hand, and behind him, a hologram sprang to life showing the First Order's massive shipyard, filled to the brim with their triangular fighting ships. He continued, "The actions of Vice Admiral Holdo have created a unique opportunity to strike this blow. To confirm some of the rumors floating around, the reason her attack worked was due to the modifications the First Order made to their fighting ships. I will spare you the technical details, but suffice it to say, the modifications saved power, but eliminated the hyperspace 'bounce' effect that would prevent this from working on the Chimera, and most of the ships in our fleet. The First Order has realized this critical vulnerability, and is in the process of fixing it. However, while it's a small change, their method shows an unsurprising lack of creativity, and requires the ship be minimally staffed while the grav plates are upgraded. We have a simpler solution, Ms. Tico suggested we used modified gravity mines to create the effect needed to protect the ship until a more permanent fix could be made.

He paused and continued, "We are going to board and take those ships using Lando Calrissian's mole miners."

Lando interjected, "yeah, are they going to be useful for mining after this?"

Thrawn lips pulled into a tight smile, "I am certain, General Calrissian, that we will be able to replace them, if they can not. We can discuss terms afterwards. Now, if you have nothing further at this time?"

Lando gave a swirling gesture with his hand. Ezra, Hera, Zeb and Sabine all rolled their eyes. Chewbacca just seemed amused.

Thrawn, completely unperturbed, adjusted the control, bringing one of the First Order ships into view, with several points circled in red. He said, "these are the strike points for the Mole Miners. X-wings and Tie Defenders will be flying cover. The Mandalorian fighters and most of the Vulture droid forces, lacking a hyperdrives, will be flying in on the.."

Ezra, with years of experience, effortlessly read amusement all over Thrawn's face. To anyone else, it was as if his complexion hadn't changed at all, as the Grand Admiral said, " 'It's Ours Now.' The key, of course, is the ore freighter we've heavily modified. If all goes to plan, the First Order will let it into their shipyard and bring it into the heart of this shipyard. 

"However, if not..."

At that moment the rear door to the conference room opened to the musical tones of triumph Chopper in fully orange and white glory knocked the black round section from another droid down the steps to the front of the room. Not content to just make an impression, he wore the head of the defeated droid like a helmet. C-3PO's said, "Oh my."

While every rolling droid let off a chorus of aghast beeps, Hera stood up and irritatedly said, "Chopper!?! What did you do?"

Chopper, apparently oblivious to the reaction to the other droids, started to respond in a cheerful set of bleeps and bloops, when Hera raised her hand, "I don't want to hear it. You interrupted an important briefing"

Thrawn took the display in impassively, apparently content to let the distraction play out as Chopper again tried to explain again when Hera cut him off again, "No, Chopper, you're not explaining now, you are going out into the hall and standing in the corner until we're done."

Chopper blew another raspberry, turned and intentionally activated his rocket to fly back up the top of the stairs, all the while issuing a constant stream of electronic mumbling. Finally, he rolled out with a electronic version of, "Fine Then!"

Hera sighed, pointed to a couple of the security personnel and said, "Would the two of you remove that, and take it to the slicer lab, along with the head, if you can get it away from Chopper."

Thrawn said, "If there are no additional interruptions? If not, I have prepared several alternatives, in case all does not go according to plan. General Sendulla, what is that status of the Horn?"

"All systems ready to go, and systems on deck."

"Very good. Commander Dameron, are the pilots ready?"

Poe stood up and said, "Yes sir. We're ready to go. We've got the maneuvers down pat and I'm confident we can execute to plan to your specifications."

"Excellent, commander, please be seated."

"General Kalani, are your troops ready to go?"

The droid spoke from where it had been standing, "Affirmative, Vulture droids, Battle droids, Pilot droids, Commando droids, Magna Guards and Droideka all deployed per specifications. The protocol droid modifications are complete, but not without some complaints. They can be reviewed later, if you wish. We are on schedule to complete backups within the hour. Also, I have reviewed Astromech to human ratios and assigned those free droids to the best organic pilot mix to optimize the operational parameters." 

"Excellent, General. Owl Leader, your troop status?"

Sabine stood up, helmet tucked under her arm and said, "Good to go, but some of the boys are still a little sloppy on their jetpack work. We'll be fine. Plan's a bit crazy, but it sounds like fun."

Ezra picked the humor hidden behind Thrawn's stony demeanor. Thrawn said, "I have always appreciated your art, General Wren. One hopes you have learned to appreciate mine. Besides, is not the nature of Rebel and Resistance, to do the insane?"

Sabine gave a rakish bow as she had her seat. As she did, the room had a quiet, but much needed laugh. 

Thrawn's lips pursed into a thin smile as he said, "We are ready. It's time for the First Order to loose assets, and this Resistance to find it's footing and it's power to take back the galaxy.

He paused and said, "If you have questions, please take them up with your respective commanders, and be sure to review the variations. We will commence per schedule. And now, I think I will borrow and old Rebel Phrase. 'May the force Be With You. Dismissed."

As the rest of the attendees filed out, Hera and Ezra lingered for a moment. Hera met with Thrawn first. They spoke quietly for a moment. As Hera turned to leave, Chopper rolled to the front of the door and warbled a timid apology.

Hera sighed and said, "you are forgiven Chop, but your timing was awful. Come on, I think the captain and the Grand Admiral need to talk for a moment."

As they left, Ezra waited for Thrawn to acknowledge him. Thrawn spoke quietly, "Yes Captain?" 

Ezra couldn't quite keep the anger out of his voice, "I just reviewed my orders, sir. Why did you reassign me?"

Thrawn's normal impassive visage cracked. He spoke quietly, "Ezra, there are many reasons. Many justifications I could use. I could tell you that I reunited you, Sabine and the young Jacen aboard the Ghost because the First Order could use the sort of brilliant improvisations that you and your crew used when we fought. I could say that having a Force Adept aboard one the freighters will improve the tactical coordination, and efficiencies.

"None of those are the reason, are they?" Ezra asked.

Thrawn paused, "What I have planned, what I intend is very dangerous. You have been my protégé for a very long time. If it works as intended, the First Order will be crippled and can be picked apart at leisure. To do it, I must risk the Chimera, but I will not risk you."

"Thrawn, you are the most dangerous man I've ever met. The Resistance needs you."

Thrawn was quiet, "Only for a time. But times change, Ezra. I have no connection to that mystical Force, not the way that you do, but even I know that sooner or later I will loose the great last battle. But I will not leave the galaxy to plunge itself back into chaos when I'm gone.

Then the Grand Admiral stopped, considered quietly and said, "But again, that's only part of the reason. In the end, I am willing to risk myself on this plan, because it will crush the First Order. I will not risk the man you have become for this. I will not risk my friend."

Ezra said, " Mitth'raw'nurodo, you don't have to. I will follow orders, because I trust you to do what you say you will do. But I'd rather be by your side."

Thrawn nodded, "It pleases me that you would. Be with your old friends, the ones that helped change the galaxy once before."

A short time later, the fleet formed up for the operation. In the lead was the massive battered ore freighter. Over the coms Hera gave the announcement, "At your leisure, Stealth One, and may the Force be with you."

A nasal voice replied, "Roger Roger. commencing now."

With a flicker of motion, the freighter jumped to Hyperspace. Hera watched it go from the bridge of the Corran Horn, sighed and said, "Now, we wait."

\----

The First Order shipyard was a hive of activity. Tenders moved around the massive, mostly dark battleships and First Order Tie Fighters flew tight patrol patterns. General Hux stood by the viewport, watching the activity. Kylo Ren was stalking about impatiently, his cloak swirling. Most of the crew were wisely giving him a large berth. The moment they had waited for arrived. 

A flicker of pseudo motion, and the massive, battered freighter they had seen in their spy's footage came into view. It's engines struggling, and smoke poured from all the right places on the hull. On open band comms, the message Hux was expecting came over the comms in a nasal voice, "Shipyard, this is the Freighter 'Twilight Dawn', requesting immediate assistance. We were attacked by pirates, and suffered extreme damage, we're venting atmosphere and we're concerned about our engines giving out."

General Hux rolled his eyes as the message ended, "Please help."

The general turned to Ops and said, "Well, the Resistance has arrived, let's welcome them properly. Open the comms."

Aboard the Chimera, Grand Admiral Thrawn studied the tactical displays on the bridge, his eyes narrowed and waited. Rey's voice issued from a nearby cloaked figure, "Will it work?"

Thrawn considered for a moment, "The next few moments will answer that question."

The comms crackled and General Hux's voice came over the open band. He couldn't quite keep the sarcasm out of his voice, "Freighter 'Twilight Dawn' the First Order is happy to provide aid to you. Please follow the fighters in."

As the freighter struggled towards the shipyard, several frigates and cruisers moved into position, their guns slowly tracking the freighter. Thrawn watched the display impassively. 

With the shipyard in sight, the com lit up with the freighter captain's broadcast, "Thank you First Order, you don't know how much this means to me."

General Hux, not on open frequency turned to the operations board and said, "Oh you're welcome, Resistance.

Then he turned to the tactical officer and said, "Tell all ships, open fire."

Aboard the freighter, one B-1 Pilot Droid turned to it's fellow B-1 and said, "Do you think they bought it?"

"Of course," the other replied, "I'm a natural actor."

Turbolaser fire flashed towards the ship. The first B-1 Pilot Droid had the last word before the bolts hit, "They didn't buy it, they didn't buy it!"

As the freighter exploded into a ball of flame, the scopes aboard the Chimera went dead. Thrawn turned to the cloaked figure and said, "Alert the rest of the fleet, message Alpha."

"Yes sir," Rey's voice responded from inside the cloak.

Then with a tight smile he said to the tactical officer in standard Imperial uniform, "Drop Cloak. Launch the vulture Droids."

General Hux's celebration was short lived. Suddenly, what was empty space was full of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Not just any Imperial Star Destroyer, but the Chimera. It's massive cannons firing syncopated blasts of red that holed and destroyed a frigate and forced the rest of the fleet to divert power to shields. Much to the shock of the First Order Tie Fighter pilots, dozens of small objects dropped of the bottom of the Chimera, and flung themselves into battle. Their oblong heads centered a a thick wing that were pylons to rounded vertical weapon pods, with pair of missiles tucked into a cut out that met up with the middle of the pylon.

With mechanical precision, the droid fighters flung themselves into the fray, missiles and laser bolts filling space in a deadly dance. To their credit, the Tie Fighter pilots were able to rally in short order. They can be forgiven for not noticing that every single missile missed the fighters. 

General Hux, on the other hand, had no such excuse. As he watched the unfolding battle, a com officer ran up to him and said something. The General turned with a smug smile and said, "Supreme Leader Ren, it appears your intelligence asset still provides us with gems. We have the decrypted signal from the Chimera. You will want to hear this."

Kylo Ren, who had been pacing incessantly stopped and said, "Play the message, General."

Hux smiled in smug satisfaction, and motioned to his com officer who pressed a button on his pad. The message played as Rey's voice played from the pad, "Admiral Sendulla, they saw through our plan. We lost Finn, lost Poe, Owl Leader, and all our star fighters. It's a total disaster. Thrawn's using the Vultures to help us with bailing out, but the operation is a bust. We're doomed."

Kylo Ren's mechanical voice exuded confidence as he said, "We have her. I told you he'd bring the Chimera here. Now, spring the trap. I will be boarding my fighter and capturing her personally."

"Yes, Supreme Leader, " General Hux replied without sarcasm.

The order given, a wedge shaped First Order ship with rounded domes rose up behind the Chimera, covered by several ships. Suddenly, it's massive domes glowed and activated. 

Aboard the Chimera, one of the tactical officers in a nasal voice said, "Grand Admiral, Interdictor class ship astern, we have a massive gravity wave. We can't jump to lightspeed."

In that moment, Grand Admiral Thrawn looked up from his display. It showed the launch of a trio of elite Tie Fighters from the shipyard. In the background, an organ might have been playing as he smiled, "How kind of the First Order to provide for us. Instruct the Tie Bomber crews to forgo the grav mines but carry out the main plan. Our guest is enroute. Let's welcome him properly."

The flight officer responded, "Roger Roger, Tie Bombers launching now," and turned back to his command console.

Suddenly, the bridge shook from the near miss of green Turbolaser blast. The cloaked figure looked over to where Thrawn was.

\-----

From the bridge of Corran's Horn, Hera could see the Resistance fleet stood at ready in the depths of space. Ahsoka wandered from through the crew pits, visiting various stations and speaking quiet words of encouragement. Hera quietly opened a small command window on her screen and marveled. Wherever Ashoka went, the efficiency metrics jumped from anywhere from ten percent to a full quarter higher than their normal baselines. The Empire had designed the system to allow admirals to punish shirkers, of course, but Hera had used it to figure out who needed a bit more training. It was what Thrawn had said, a single Force User couldn't always swing a battle, but they could absolutely influence it. No wonder he'd been so insistent on making sure to arrange that variable in their favor. Hera struggled to not let her past with the Grand Admiral damage how she would act in the present. And she was absolutely sure she'd rather take his advice than let the First Order win.

From the pit the com officer looked up and said, "General, we have a second message from the Chimera. Same encryption as the previous one."

Hera nodded and said, "Play it."

The sound of Rey's voice echoed through the bridge, "Message to General Sendulla on the Corran Horn, Grand Admiral Thrawn is down. I'm trying to extract the Chimera from the shipyards, but I...I don't know what I'm doing."

Hera nodded and said, "That's it then. Tell all ships, Go to lightspeed."

In the depths of space, hundreds of flickers of motion filled empty space as the fleet jumped to lightspeed.

\----

General Hux watched as Kylo Ren's Elite Tie Fighter weaved in between the Vulture droids on his way to the Chimera. The droids seemed to be gunning for him personally. Behind the Elite Tie Fighters was the command gunship carrying the Pratorean Guard assigned to 'protect' the 'Supreme Leader.' With the Chimera boxed in by First Order Destroyers, General Hux found the Tie Bombers to be more of a worry, having unleashed a wave of concussion missiles which he'd had to divert his fighters to shoot down. 

Orange and red explosions showed where the missiles got through. General Hux was pleased, in that their weapons capacities hadn't been particularly degraded by the missile fire. His Ties had managed to swat at least a wing's worth of the bombers, but they'd managed to restock and launch again. If he'd been paying better attention, he'd have noticed that what they were destroying were docking clamps and airlock walkways, and might have wondered what, exactly, the Viper droids missiles had been targeted at. Instead, he remained confident of his victory.

Aboard his Tie Fighter, Kylo Ren flew with all the skill of both of his bloodlines. The Vipers got one of his wingmen in a ball of flame. With a cry of frustration rendered inarticulate by his voice modulator, he channeled his rage into his shooting. by the time he closed in on the Chimera, a dozen Viper droids floated broken in his wake. He flew upwards into forward landing bay of the Chimera, using his ships laser cannons to take out the internal defenses and scatter the refueling and rearming crews. His wingman was not quite as skilled. The tie pilot caught the Tie Fighter's wing on the entry was flung off into space, and exploded. 

Kylo Ren ignored the loss. He didn't care. Rey, his Rey, would be on the bridge. He'd drag her back to the First Order and show her why he was right. With such dark thought he leapt from his star fighter, igniting his lightsaber. 

As Storm Troopers charged him, blasters firing, he reflected the bolts back, stabbing and slicing as he went. He made his way to the blast doors at the rear of the bay, leaping through them before they could close. He fought his way through storm troopers. If the crew ran, he ignored them, but any that opposed him, he slaughtered without a thought. It took him longer than it should have, because he was unfamiliar with the ancient Star Destroyer's lay out. But eventually, he found the right Turbolift, tore it open with the force and propelled it to the bridge. If he had looked behind him, he might have noticed that the dead troopers bodies sparked at their severed limbs.

General Hux was feeling confident. That is, until the Resistance Fleet dropped out of hyperspace right on top of his fleet. The Corran's Horn introduced itself to First Order by using it's heavy turbolasers to shred the Star Destroyers that had been boxing the Chimera and preventing it's escape. General Hux saw the Corran's Horn, and decided that it was not just a threat, it was an opportunity. One he would seize. General Sendulla was assigned to be aboard that massive beast, and killing her would be one less symbol for the Resistance to rally behind. He opened a com to the Praetorian Guard that was supposed to be supporting Kylo Ren and issued their new orders. The upstart could solve the problem on his own, or not. The General was flexible on that point.

As they crashed out of Hyperspace, Poe called out over the coms, "all wings form up and report in."

Poe glanced over his shoulder and saw that the blunted cone cargo that had been attached via cable was still there.

"Gold Leader, all accounted for, all cargo intact, " came from a dark skinned pilot in a drawl. His X-wing was top of the line.

"Red Leader, all accounted for, all cargo intact," said a Quarren said through his face tentacles, piloting an old school X-Wing.

"Blue Leader, blue six has a minor fault in engine on blue Six, but all accounted for and all cargo intact," said a young human male with light skin, his X-wing surrounded by Y-wings.

"Violet Leader, all ladies ready to dance, and all cargo accounted for," said a reptilian Falleen woman, her hair done up through her pilot's helmet in the traditional top knot in a the long rounded cockpit of a B-wing.

A series of piggish grunts came over the com, followed by the soft female voice of a translator system announced the Gamorean leader's report, "Green Leader, all accounted for, Green Seven lost his cargo and lunch on reversion, but he should have the former fixed in a moment."

"Orange Leader, all accounted for, all cargo intact," said a woman with blond eyebrows beneath her helmet. 

"Owl, Raptor, and Buzzard wings all report in, we've got your back, " came from the Imperial flight leader.

"Cargo checking in. We're shaken, but not stirred, let's get 'em!"

Poe nodded to himself and thought to himself how the real thing had gone better than practice. He opened the comms, "S-foils to Attack position. Everyone remember your area.

He took a deep breath and remembered to trust. Poe finished, "Shields double front, tie-Defenders, watch our back."

The Tie Defender commed back, "We've got your back, X-wings."

As the X-wings and B-wings finished locking up their foils, Poe said, "Alright, let's let them know we're here."

From glassed nose of the Ghost, Ezra watched as the beauty of hyperspace twisted in bright light and then dropped suddenly to real space. Jason said from the cockpit, "Woah, that was a rough one."

Ezra said, "Yeah, Interdictors gravity wells are like that. I'm glad your mom let you man the ship." 

From the top glass turret, Zeb chimed in, "Hey, enough chit chat, we've got First Order to disorder and cargo to escort."

Thrawn's voice echoed in Ezra's head, 'in order to win this fight we must do two things. The first, we must separate Kylo Ren from the command structure. As you well know, the Force can radically change a battle. So far as we are aware, Kylo Ren and the now deceased Supreme Leader Snoke are the only Force Sensitive individuals in the First Order. We do this by offering him exactly what he wants, away from the command structure. His art is brutal, practical, but without forethought. Vader could, when he wished, plan elegantly. I fear that Kylo Ren has none of those skills and we shall use it against him.'

Jason interrupted his thoughts with a bit of muttering, "Yeah, we get to play nursemaid, fun."

Zeb broke over the com, "Oh, you want fun? You are on. I guarantee your crazy flying will spoil more of Ezra's fighter kills than mine."

Jason laughed, "Oh you are ON, you purple Fuzzball."

His bellow to the people in the cargo hold resonated through the ship, "Hold on back there! It's about to get bumpy!"

Sabine's voice echoed over back as Jason threw the freighter through a tight hammerhead turn as both Ezra and Zeb picked off their respective targets, "I am going to KILL the three of you when we get back."

The turbolift doors to the bridge of the Chimera wrenched open as Kylo Ren leapt through. The bridge crew took one look at Kylo Ren's lit lightsaber, black helmet and cape, and opted to take cover. At the front of the bridge, at the end of the long catwalk a feminine figure in a long brown cloak stood with her back to him. Rey's voice issued from the hood of the cloak, "Please go away, Kylo Ren. I do not want anything more to do with you." 

Kylo Ren pleaded as he approached, "Rey, it's over, you have to see that now. My Praetorian Guard will board that ship of yours, and kill your General. Your fighters can't do enough to harm our shipyard. Not even your ancient commander can save your 'Resistance' now."

He leaned over her shoulder as the turbolaser fire poured from the shipyard, even as proton torpedoes streaked in from the incoming resistance starfighters. Rey's voice came from the cloak, "Kylo Ren, please, you must leave. This is not going to work."

Kylo Ren yanked back the hood with a firm, "Yes it will."

He was not greeted with Rey's face. Instead he looked into the golden face of a protocol droid who said in Rey's voice, "I am terribly sorry, Mistress Rey is not available to speak to you."

Before he could react, the droid turned and extended a pair of rods from it's wrists that were surrounded in a halo of electrical energy and rammed them home into Kylo Ren's chest, saying, "I must apologize, my programming had to be significantly altered for this. Now I am afraid I really must kill you."

Lando whooped as the Millennium Falcon charged out of hyperspace. Beside him Chewbacca expertly worked the controls to keep the Falcon's ever temperamental systems from malfunctioning. The quads thundered as they dove into the fray. All around the Tie Fighters of the First Order danced with the eclectic fighter fleet of the Resistance. One of the few remaining Viper droids got the better of the First Order Tie Fighters, exploding it into a ball of flame. As the Falcon took a hit and shook, Chewbacca turned and roared.

Lando said in his smoothest tones, "Relax, big guy, the cargo will be fine."

The Falcon took another hit, followed by the warbling tone of an alert siren. Chewbacca turned with a growl.

Lando responded, "It'll hold together, Chewie. We've got this, relax."

Chewbacca threw him a look, hopped up and ran to the back with a tool kit. As soon as he was gone the ship took another hit. Lando looked over his shoulder and said, "Hear me, beautiful, hold together."

The Praetorian's shuttle flew expertly between the turbolaser and quad blasts of the massive Super Star Destroyer. The shuttle landed against the nearest airlock to the bridge. Inside the ship, soldiers assembled to intercept the boarders. As the airlock sparked and fell in, the red armored forms poured into the hall as the Resistance soldiers did their best to hold them back and failed.

As the Praetorians poured onto the bridge of the Corran Horn, Hera stood with her back to them, looking at the stars. They moved fast, their weapons showing off the red lightning as they brandished them threateningly. Hera didn't turn until they were almost on top of her. Then, a pair of white blades emerged from the cylindrical rods concealed in her hands as she turned, blocked the first guardsmen, and then used the Force to throw them back into disarray. "Hera" flicked one of the lightsabers into a spin while her hand came to her belt buckle and her image flickered and replaced with the horned and long blue and white lekkued Ahsoka Tano, who smiled as she caught the spinning blade effortlessly and said, "Shall we dance?"

Ezra fired the cannons of the Ghost but his mind was on Thrawn's words, 'the second element is General Hux himself. Without Kylo Ren to be provide guidance or unforeseeable variables, he is much more predictable. In studying his art, it is clear he is a political general. He is excellent public speaker, but it shows his rage. That rage blinds him to logistics, and instead focuses his attention on symbols. Consider Starkiller base. Another horrifically impractical super weapon, like Project Stardust. His art revels in what it takes to be a sign of strength. To me, it is actually weakness. Destroying a sun to power a weapon? foolish and wasteful. The Death Star, by comparison, was a piece of elegant engineering. Symbols are what he is about.

'Therefore, we will give him symbols to attack. If he felt he could attack a General or an Admiral, he will. Thus, we bait the second part of our trap by letting him target a new symbol, the General of the Resistance, as well as the symbol of our biggest ship. I rather am fond of a Jedi saying I heard once, "size matters not." 

'Thanks to a small, almost insignificant piece of technology, the assault party will be left with the one person who can certainly kill those elite troops. As I have analyzed it, he'll divert the Praetorian guard from protecting Kylo Ren and instead go after the symbol, leaving their only Force User far too exposed for his own good.'

Ezra smiled and said under his breath, "And then, consumed with the distractions, they'll miss the actual goal of the raid, until it's far too late." 

Jason called down from the cockpit, "What was that Ezra?"

"Just enjoying the moment of family. Wish Hera could be here."

Jason said, "yeah, but you know mom."

"Oh yeah, always the last place anyone expects."

From the cargo hold Sabine shouted up, "are we there yet? I'm going to have sick cadets here in a minute or two if you can't level this thing out Jacen!"

"Working on it, " Jacen replied as the ship bobbed and weaved to the sound of laser cannon fire. He then let off a cheerful, "Well look at that, it looks like Poe's first to his mark!"

From the command deck, General Hux watched the battle and frowned. There was something bothering him. He turned to his tactical officer and said, "Give me a close up of one of the X-wings."

The officer complied and in the main monitor it was clear the X-wings, Y-Wings, and even the B-wings had been modified and were pulling odd Cone Shaped cargo units. General Hux said, "Wait, no, those aren't cargo units.. they're ships!

"Officer, what kind of ships are those? I don't recognize them."

The officer stammered back, "I...I don't know sir."

"Then find out, NOW!"

Poe barrel rolled through the explosions of a pair of First Order Tie Fighters, and was clear. The First Order Light Destroyer, still in standby mode filled his forward view. Behind him, the Tie Defender began using it's ion cannons to pelt the ship's weapon emplacements. All around him, the chaos of battle reigned. 

"BB-88, get ready to release the cargo and patch me through," Poe said.

At the droid's warble of compliance, Poe let his cockiness out and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We will be landing shortly. Please tighten your seatbelts, return your seats and tray tables to the full, upright and locked positions. And thank you for flying Resistance airlines.

His next command was to his faithful droid, "Cut em loose, and let's get back at it! And Force be with you."

With that the conical ship fell away and dove towards the bridge of the Light Destroyer. Poe quickly lost sight of it as he returned his attention to the fray, blasting a First Order Tie off of one of the slow moving Y-wings that had somehow managed to be the second one in. 

Aboard the Chimera, Kylo Ren writhed in pain, and leapt back from the attacking droid. He landed with his lightsaber lit. As he landed the droid spoke again in Rey's voice, "Again, I really must apologize."

With that, the droid tossed off it's cloak, and a pair of arms that ended in Gattling blasters flipped over it's shoulders, spun up, and opened fire on Kylo Ren, who dodged, parried and deflected every shot, splashing fire all over the bridge. As it continued steady fire, the droid continued it's approach, it's gentle tone belying the obvious menace. It said in Rey's voice, "Interesting, I was programmed to understand that Force wielders might be able to do that. I shall endeavor to increase my rate of fire accordingly."

As the droid approached with clear menace, Kylo Ren spat out in electronic tones, "You will not stop me."

"I am terribly sorry, but I really must not let you live."

Kylo Ren used the Force to leap, twisting over the droid, as it tried to track it with it's blasters. As he closed in with his lightsaber, it turned quickly and thrust with the mounted shock rods. Kylo Ren delivered a fast blow, slashing off one of the droid's hands, and destroying one of the shock rods. The other shock rod snuck around his defenses, and caught him in the shoulder, causing him to spasm in pain. He focused his rage and used the Force to throw the droid away from him, and leapt after it, and slashed off one of the Gatling gun blasters. The droid commented, "Excellent maneuver. I really am sorry about this."

With that, a vibro blade flicked out from the damaged arm and stabbed upwards at Kylo Ren, catching his side, where he'd been hit once before. As blood coated his side, he slashed the vibro blade off and then slashed the gattling blaster off the other shoulder. He rose to his feet shouting, "Where.Is.REY."

The droid responded, trying to stab him with the vibroblade with each word, "I am sorry, but she is not here. Now, please stand still, I really must kill you."

It's good hand went to it's thigh, that opened and dropped what looked to be a thermal detonator into it's hand with a quick whirr of servomotors it launched itself around Kylo Ren's waist locking it's arms and activating the detonator.

Kylo Ren was shockingly fast, he drove his lightsaber through the droid's head and kicked the body away. As the detonator exploded, he used his anger to fuel the Force. As he did so, the ball of explosion did not expand, but instead it hovered like a miniature sun, until it's power was expended. As it finished, Kylo Ren heard Thrawn's speak in velvet tones, "Marvelous. Your art of destruction truly is spectacular. But I expect that was rather tiring."

Kylo Ren's head snapped to the back of the bridge, where Thrawn stood by his ready room. Kylo Ren put every ounce of menace into his electronically modified voice, "Are you responsible for this?"

Utterly unruffled, Thrawn replied, "Bringing it here, yes, I am completely responsible for that. However, the droid itself was created by a Techno Union senator shortly after the Clone Wars. It seems he had managed to annoy the Hutts, and well one thing lead to assassins. And this was his ultimately ineffective response. Poison can be such an insidious weapon."

"And what will you do to stop me from choking the life from you, " Kylo Ren responded in anger.

"Because you will be entirely too busy," Thrawn replied. Four destroyer droideka rolled into position around him, snapping into combat position with their pair of double blasteres extended as their force fields came up. Behind Kylo Ren, there were four sounds of crackling snaps as four of the crewmembers Kylo Ren had ignored deactivated their holographic image inducers, revealing them to be tall and thin Magna Guard droids, who together energized the ends of their shock staffs in deadly purple lightning.

Kylo Ren ignited his lightsaber in response.

Aboard the First Order Light Star Destroyer known as "Unconquerable " a wall turned red and melted as a blast of plasma turned a curious stormtrooper to ash. Second later, it stopped and a motley band of Resistance fighters poured out. Finn, wearing light armor and no helmet led the way. Flanking him were a pair of the Storm Troopers from the Chimera, who had opted for a brighter color scheme of yellows and greens, as opposed to the normal grays. After all, friendly fire isn't.

Mixed in the group was a half a dozen of the newly recruited Resistance fighters and a single Mandalorian who proudly wore his T visored hemet and armor painted in purples. He wore a heavy communications pack instead of a jet pack. Bringing up the rear was Rose, who would be key to this little operation. 

As Finn came up to the corridor to the bridge, he stopped and said, "Pair of Storm Troopers are probably laying in ambush ahead. "

The Mandalorian said, "Not to worry. I've got it."

He reached into his bag, pulled out a small, cylinder type device, with a round stud in the middle. He twisted it slightly, nodded, and with a press of the button, threw the device. It flew in a lazy arc to slightly past the end of the hallway, where it stopped, spun, and proceeded to fire thousands of tiny bolts back to either side of the hall. With an unceremonious thud, a pair of First Order Storm Troopers fell to the ground in the hallway. 

"Spoilsport, " one of the green and yellow troopers commented.

It took but a moment to enter the bridge, where a First Order commander stood in the center, next to a console with a large red button. The rest of the bridge crew consisted of a pair of techs who were clearly not at all happy to be there. The commander intoned, "Surrender now, Rebel Scum or I will blow this ship to pieces, with you on it."

Finn held up his hand to forstall his troops shooting the captain and said, "Look, you don't want to do this. This ship will be ours momentarily. Just.. surrender, okay?"

"Oh surrender? I think not!" he said, slamming his hand down.

Nothing happened. The commander hit it a couple of more times, before yanking the console up to look inside at a little droid with three red eyes and two half spheres like wings. It's small arms had been busily rerouting the circuits. When it saw him, it looked up and proceeded to fire an electrical arc into his face. As he jerked back, Finn stunned him with his blaster and said, "Rose, you're up."

She walked up to the console where the droid was and said, "Okay Little Guy. Activation code, 'Ever Blooming.'"

The droid, stopped, it's eyes turned green. It then hustled to disappear underneath the console, chirping. All around the command bridge, there were answering chirps. Rose looked up with a calm grin, "Finn, the ship is yours."

"Great, let's move in our stuff. Meantime, I have a little announcement to make, " Finn said activating the internal comms, "Good Evening, First Order. I'm pleased to announce that this ship is under new management. We'll be venting the rest of the atmosphere shortly, so you'll want to get to the escape pods in the next....

He glanced over at Rose who raised two fingers, and said, "two minutes. Thank you for donating this ship to the Resistance. We'll take good care of it."

Two minutes later, he keyed the coms to the frequency Thrawn had specifically reserved for this task and said, "Baby Bird One, leaving the roost."

"Baby Bird One, leaving the roost, " resonated over the bridge of the Corran's Horn. Ahsoka, smashed the butt end of her lightsaber on the back of the head of the last of the Praetorian guard, who dropped unceremoniously next to a pile of broken weapons and his unconscious fellow guardsmen. As the guardsmen were cuffed and dragged off the bridge to holding, Ahsoka stroked to the center of the bridge and said, "Comms, put me through to the 'It's Ours Now.'

"Baby Bird One, leaving the roost," came over the com channel as Jason danced the Ghost past a pair of Tie Fighters. Zeb swung the dual laser cannons into position and blasted one in passing, while Ezra caught two of more of the Ties in passing. The coms chirped again, "this is Baby Bird Three, we hit a Buckethead Brigade training group. We're pinned down and need some help."

Jason put the Ghost into a fierce spin that resulted two Tie Fighters crashing into each other as he flicked out his hand, and the slightly out of reach com panel to lit up. He said, "This is Ghost. We're bringing the cavalry, Baby Bird."

As the Ghost spun towards one of the First Order Star Destroyers, dancing between the green bolts of the turbolasers from the station. Ezra relaxed into the moment, and felt the right time and place to strike. He pulled the triggers and the blast sailed forth into the hull of the Star Destroyer where it gave off a very unimpressive explosion on the outside. On the inside, a circuit blew up a squad of Storm Troopers setting up a heavy blaster cannon to assail the Resistance intruders in a most impressive manner.

Meanwhile, Jason activated the internal comms, "Alright, Party People, get ready to drop."

Sabine yelled up, "Finally! When we're done, I'm going to kill the three of you."

She turned to the mixed group of flight pack equipped rebels, brightly colored imperial stormtroopers, and Mandalorians and said, "Okay, we'll be bailing through the ventral hatch, we'll breach per exercise, "

She tapped one of the Mandalorian troopers and said, "You and ONLY you, use your missile to destroy the hatch."

"The rest of you, we jump in, hit them hard as we can."

As the Ghost briefly stopped dancing in space and the hatch in the floor opened up, Jason shouted, "That's it! Go go go!"

They leapt into the void, igniting their thrusters to charge towards the ship. Ezra had the best view as the Mandalorian fired her missile at the intended target, which exploded the airlock. Then the view turned dizzying as Jason flew evasively from the ship. Then another com message came through, "Baby Bird Two leaving the nest."

It was in that moment that Ezra felt the Force speak. He gasped, "Thrawn!"

Jason looked concerned and said, "What?

"Wait, Ezra where are you going?" Jason said in response to Ezra leaping from his chair and running towards the back of the ship.

Ezra shouted, "Need the Phantom, Thrawn will be hurt bad!"

Jason said, "I can't hold her steady to launch it, too much fire!"

Ezra ran and leapt into the air. As the ship literally spun about him, he hit the ceiling with this feet and pushed off towards the top corridor and practically flew towards the shuttle pod docked on the rear of the Ghost. Catching the edge, he turned it into a quck roll that landed him into the pilot's seat. As he strapped in he thumbed the internal comm and said, "Don't worry Jason, I've been doing it a long time. Keep up evasive, I'll launch when ready."

"Alright, you ask for it, but if you loose another Phantom, Mom's going to kill you."

As Ezra launched, dancing amongst the green tubolaser fire he said, "I know, I won't. Good Hunting Jason."

"Good Hunting, Ezra, we'll back you up if we can, " he replied in fierce determination, "and may the Force be with you."

General Hux scowled at the battle beyond the view port. There was something wrong. He just couldn't put his finger on what it was. Kylo Ren was out of communication, but that was neither a surprise, nor unwelcome. It was clear that he was alive, because the Chimera's turbolaser fire had become uncoordinated since he'd boarded. The massive Super Star Destroyer had caused less damage than he feared. What he couldn't figure out was why the ship hadn't destroyed the Interdictor Cruiser they had used to trap the Chimera. Unless he'd missed something, something important. His dark musings were interrupted by one of his tactical officers, who said, "Sir, I have something on those cone shaped ships."

General Hux's head snapped in his direction, "Well out with it! I haven't got all day."

"Sir it's a construction class vehicle, called a Mole Miner. It's heavily armored and shielded to allow it operate in hostile environments. They're designed to land with the cone end up and fire a plasma torch down to cut into the ground to locate elements to mine. They're slow. I have no idea why they'd bring them here."

One of the com officer piped up, "Sir, the 'Unconquerable' has left it's berth, and is not responding to hails."

Hux turned his head with a snap and said, "Give me a close up of it's hull, near the number 22 airlock."

The com officer complied, and there on the screen, was one of the mole miners, locked to the hull of the Star Destroyer. General Hux growled, "They're not rescuing their comrades.. They're STEALING OUR SHIPS!"

The com officer helpfully supplied, "Sir, another two ships have left dock and not responding to hail."

"DESTROY THOSE SHIPS!" General Hux screamed.

"Baby Bird One, leaving the roost," came over the speakers of the 'It's Ours Now.' The captain, one of the transfers from the Chimera, turned to Hera.

"What now, General?" He queried calmly. 

"Order the Horn to clear the road for our new ships."

"Coms, you heard the General. Anything else?"

"What's our status on the Chimera?" She replied.

"No change since last update. Sorry General."

Hera found herself ruefully considering the irony of her next statement, "Well, we'll just have to trust that he knows what he's doing."

The Coms broadcasted "Baby Bird Two leaving the roost."

Hera couldn't help but smile, "So far, so good."

"Baby bird Five, leaving the Roost," The coms reverberated, followed swiftly by, "Baby Bird Seven, leaving the Roost."

Hera tightened her grip in anticipation. Thrawn had said that once they had six ships taken, it would be time to move to the next phase of the plan, but not yet. 

"Baby Bird One, leaving the roost," came crackling from the Falcon's com. Chewbacca roared in excitement as the Falcon shot between a pair of First Order Star Destroyers busily expressing their aggravation with their turbolasers and tractor beams.

Lando shouted to the back, "Artoo, It's time to wake up our sleeper."

As the ship bounced from a glancing hit, he muttered, "Maybe she'll have better luck up here than I am."

In the back, a strapped in C3-PO moaned, "We're doomed."

Artoo ignored him, and rolled over to the large block of Carbonite in the center of the floor. To someone unfamiliar, it looked like a large art installation, a trapezoidal block of black with the carved figure of Rey rising in from the center of the block. Artoo extended his manipulator from one of his hatches on the front to a control panel on the side of the block. With a click, the lights turned green and the block began to melt away, revealing the real Rey, who gasped in surprise. 

"I can't see, " she said, hands flailing a bit about. 

C-3PO unlocked himself from the seat, and came over and said, "Mistress Rey, please do not worry, it should pass momentarily, according to the medical droids."

Rey blinked and finally found calm, she said, "Take me up to the cockpit, I need to know what's going on."

C-3PO gently helped her to her feet and together they worked their way to the cockpit.

"Baby Bird Seven, leaving the Roost," Thrawn heard from the com bud in his ear. The situation was a mix of good news and bad news. The good news, Kylo Ren was thoroughly engaged in battling the combat droids, and had several spots where the droids had landed a solid hit. The bad news was that Kylo Ren was learning and would adapt to the droids' unavoidably predictable combat strategies. Thrawn had always found the Force fascinating. Though the Empire had rigorously suppressed everything it could, Thrawn had learned much, and still knew so little. He wondered if maybe that's how it had been for the Jedi, before pre-determined truths of doctrine and pointless tradition had left the galaxy's self appointed guardians too rigid to survive. 

Each Force user handled it differently. It was their art. Ezra's art was connections. Even when not using the Force to communicate with beasts, he connected. He worked with people, listening and strengthening them. By contrast, everything Palpatine had done with the Force had been about control and power and domination. If one was a threat, he'd remove the threat. If one could be corrupted, he'd use his proxies and corrupt. At the end of the day, he was in charge, or else. 

The Grey Lady, or Ahsoka, had somehow managed to remain pure in the dark times. It reflected in her force use. When she fought she fought with a determination born of being certain she was on the right course. When she wasn't, she would change course until she was. Thrawn knew she had history with Darth Vader, but it had taken the end of the Empire to fully understand it.

Lord Darth Vader. Just the name had sent chills in the souls of his enemies. His art was one of destruction and pain. Vader painted violence across Palpatine's enemies. He treated failure as a personal affront. It showed in the brutal way he used the Force. Fail him? He'd choke the life right out of the offender. Those that would opposed him? He'd destroy everything they had. In his Tie Fighter, Vader was one of the most dangerous beings that ever lived. Anakin Skywalker, as he'd been known in the Clone Wars, and grandfather to Kylo Ren. Thrawn had reflected on the dichotomy often. What would cause the most fierce of the Jedi's defenders to destroy the very order he'd once so fiercely defended? He still didn't know.

However, of the stories told of Palpatine's defeat, only one he believed, and that was this. That in the end, it was the love of his son that caused him to betray his emperor, and toss the man into the heart of the second, wasteful Death Star. Vader might have been consumed by his passions, but love was the most unexpected emotion of the most dangerous men he'd ever met. Even so, Thrawn could not help but appreciate the irony.

As Kylo Ren used the force to smash two of the Droideka together, shattering their photoreceptors and blaster arms into a tangled mess and promptly paid for the decision when two of the Magna Guards smashed their electrostaves into his sides, Thrawn reflected at how correctly he'd called this young Force User's art. Kylo Ren had tangled his art up with angst and neediness. He'd saw his grandfather's flaws as something to live up to, rather than something to avoid. Worse he'd put the Dark Lord on a pedestal, never quite seeing the human behind the mask. His neediness was all over his desperate attempts to connect and corrupt Rey. It was inevitable that the First Order would want to spy on the Resistance. Especially since the Chimera had cost them. Once the spy was found and identified, all he and General Sendulla had to was provide that spy with the information they wanted it to know. Leak information that Rey could hide in the Force, and Kylo Ren would go mad trying to find her. Leak information where she should be, and into the trap Kylo Ren would go. 

Thrawn's only concern was that the droids might not be up to the task, but that didn't really matter. The Chimera had always been intended as a diversion. It was a necessary sacrifice to succeed in the grander plan, to simultaneously strip the First Order of it's biggest assets while arming the Resistance to break apart their rule. This plan would have been far more difficult during the New Republic. Imperial and First Order ships were standardized and built unimaginatively in the exact same way. Since tyranny never really trusts, their control centers were centralized on the bridge and able to override the rest of the ship. Of course, they had safeties and other systems designed to make unauthorized theoretically impossible. Fortunately, Kalani had provided a very old solution to a new problem. The Buzz droid missile was built to carry ball like droids, which would fan out and basically randomly wreak havoc on any star fighter it got ahold of. They weren't very smart, but their schematics were identical and therefore known. All the programmers had had to do was to remove the random function and replace it with a series of particular targets. With Kylo Ren distracted and General Hux predictable, the rest was just the end game. 

Thrawn's eyes narrowed as Kylo Ren sunk the guard of his lightsaber into the mid section of one of the Magnaguards and dragged it up between it's photo receptors, shorting it out. As it fell, it's electrostaff levitated and flew across to one of the Droideka's. Slowing just enough to penetrate the droid's force field, it entered in, and then smashed itself into it's photoreceptors. As the sparking droid fell to the ground it's blaster cannons fired off in Thrawn's direction. In his youth, he would have evaded the blast. Unfortunately age had dulled him just enough that the blast caught him in the midsection. He fell to the deck and knew what it meant. As his vision blurred, Kylo Ren destroyed the last of the battle droids and walked towards him, lightsaber sparking red. Kylo Ren said, "Now, you will tell me where Rey is, and then you will die."

A familar voice echoed from the Turbolifts, "Hands off, Sleemo."

Thrawn's vision blurred and he saw two men at once. One, a young and callow kid, dressed in orange and gold and the other a middle aged man, dressed in Imperial Gray, his cap forgotten. Both held the same odd blaster. As he watched, Kylo Ren turned and said, his voice distorted by his helmet, "This man will die. You need not."

"He might, but not by your hands. And I certainly will not," with that the image resolved into Ezra in his Imperial grays, who fired a series of short electrical balls at Kylo Ren from his odd blaster.

Kylo Ren expertly parried. He dismissively waved his hand as a broken Droideka levitated and threw itself at Ezra, who flicked a switch on the handle, igniting his own green lightsaber blade from the top of his blaster. With a practiced strike he cut the droid's remains in half in such a way that they landed on either side of him. He said, "Get. Off. My. Ship."

Kyo Ren scoffed, "Oh, and you're going to make me? You and what army?"

Ezra smiled, "You know, you should never ask that question."

With that he gave a whistle and from the darkness of the Ready Room, golden eyes and growls came. The great beasts came from the room, one at a time, each a fierce and angry Loth Wolf of gray fur, save the last one, whose fur was jet black with a white fur pattern in the fur of it's head that vaguely resembled a trident. With a howl, the wolves attacked.  
Aboard the 'It's Ours Now,' Hera looked up the board. Six ships, thus far, with another six on the verge of being taken. Four of the mole miners had been destroyed on the way in. They'd reached what Thrawn had called the tipping point. It was time. 

She turned to the comm officer and said, "Signal Corran's Horn. Destroy the Interdictor. Commence next assault."

Red fire lanced from the Super Star Destroyer, shattering the First Order's Interdictor in a ball of destruction.

Poe saw the destruction from his X-wing. He said, "That's it. open the coms, BB-88."

When BB-88 beeped affirmative, he said, "All ships, Anyone escorting Baby Birds, step it up and get them home. The rest of you, clear the road, it's time to take our prizes home!"

The remains of his squadron formed up around him as they dove into the fray. What remained of the Shipyards defenses suddenly found themselves overwhelmed with Proton torpedoes, concussion missiles, and the pilots willing to get up close and personal with the heavy turbolaser batteries. Poe maneuvered through, but miscalculated slightly and found himself face to face with a Turbolaser cannon that had just turned into position. Suddenly, green fire lanced into it and it exploded. His com line crackled with a familar voice, "X-wing, this is Baby Bird One, we got the cannons working."

"FINN! Thanks for the save!" Poe shouted in excitement, "Let's get you out of here."

"We're jumping now, " Finn said. With that, the First Order cruiser flickered and was gone.

Aboard the Chimera, Ezra rose to his feet ready to jump back into the fray against Kylo Ren, who was dodging and attempting to slash at the Loth Wolves, who avoided the increasingly sloppy slashes from his lightsaber with easy. Each time he turned to face one, another got behind and harried him. As Ezra ignited his lightsaber to jump in the fray. The marked Loth Wolf came along side gently put his paw on Ezra's arm. It intoned in a voice that was almost a growl, "No... Go...."

The wolf pushed Ezra in the direction of the fallen Thrawn. He looked between the wolf and Thrawn. Slowly, he brought his hand up and ruffled a bit of fur on the wolf's snout. He said, "Give him hell, big guy."

As the wolf bounded back into the fray, Ezra ran to Thrawn, who was bleeding badly. Ezra had seen that kind of wound before and knew what it meant. He cradled Thrawn's head in his arms and said, "Why?"

Thrawn's hand came up slowly as if to comfort Ezra, he said quietly, "In the end, you and me. We.. did it."

His hand wavered as it pointed to the viewport, filled with the sight of stolen First Order ships jumping to lightspeed, one after another. Rasping, Thrawn said, "the last of one tyranny ending another, letting the last end the First.... Ironic. To take their own ships as the price for their... butchery... fair... But in the end... that... that.. to see...it was so artistic."

With that, the last Grand Admiral of the Galatic Empire died.

Ezra laid Grand Admiral Thrawn on the deck softly and stood up. Kylo Ren thrashed angrily, as the wolves circled and bit. The big black one sat on it's haunches nearby, guarding and waiting. Ezra wiped away his hurt and pain and looked at it. 

"Go finish this, " He said calmly.

The wolf nodded and launched with a speed that shocked even Ezra who knew better. Kylo Ren had to have felt it coming in the force had to know. Even so, the wolf bit down on his sword hand while it was drawn back for another strike. Kylo Ren's hand and deactivated lightsaber landed on the deck, as he screamed in pain. Ezra raised his hand and used the force to retrieve the fallen lightsaber. With a voice that resonated with calm, determination, and an acceptance of what was, he said, "It is over, Kylo Ren. Leave this ship. Return to your chosen house, if they'll have you, or grieve what you lost and return to those that care. Get off this ship, and let me grieve."

The wolves moved in such a way that Kylo Ren did have a choice. He could stay and die, or he could leave with the wolves pursuing him to his ship. So it was that Kylo Ren retreated, his arm bleeding and in pain. Only the Dark wolf remained, waiting patiently. It turned and gently nuzzled Ezra's shoulder. He rubbed the snout of the wolf gently.

"What now, big guy?" Ezra asked sadly.

The wolf intoned deeply, "Mortisss"

Ezra looked into the fierce wolf's eyes and said, "Mortis?"

"Mortisss" The wolf said again, and then leapt to it's feet and pursued the others. While the Loth Wolves did not travel from the Chimera, they were not seen again. Com footage would later show them simply running through walls and vanishing.

Ezra turned, he watched as Kylo Ren's starfighter launched from the belly of the ship. He could take vengeance, he could destroy the man who was responsible for the death of the man he called friend. Or, he could step back, breathe in the force and remember his friend in the way he'd want to be remembered. He'd want Ezra to finish the mission. 

He got on coms, "I need a fresh bridge crew up here now. Port gunners, concentrate fire on the frigate at mark 9 and disable it. Starboard gunners, forward up and hit the shipyard, hard."

As soon as the B-1 droids filed in and took up their positions, he said to the com droid, "Open a channel to the 'It's Ours Now.'"

"Roger Roger," the droid responded.

Aboard the 'It's Ours Now', the comline crackled with Ezra's voice, "Hera, come in. this Ezra on the Chimera."

Hera turned nodded to the com officer and then said aloud, "Ezra, what are you doing on the Chimera?"

"I had to come, Thrawn... Thrawn's gone. Got shot trying to ambush Kylo Ren. I'm taking charge of the Chimera now, and we're pretty banged up, but still in the fight."

Hera had grown closer to the Chiss Grand Admiral than she realized for she felt sorrow at his passing. But, like every good commander, she pulled herself together and resolved to mourn later. She said, "Be safe Ezra. What about Kylo Ren?"

"Alive but hurt. I have a feeling we'll be seeing him again, he's done here, but it's not over yet."

"Force thing?"

"Force thing. Meantime, orders?"

"Fall back beneath the Horn and keep the lanes clear, we've got a couple dozen ships captured already, and looks like six to ten to go, the First Order won't recover from what we've already done here."

"Got you, Hera, we're on it, " Ezra finished.

Aboard Corran's Horn, Kalani watched the battle with grim satisfaction. He turned to Ahsoka beside him and said, "Organics continue to impress."

Ahsoka let the comment pass and said, "It's all over but the shouting, I think. Time to destroy the shipyards."

In his Tie Fighter, Kylo Ren was in a haze of pain, he turned on his coms and said, "Shipyard, I require a landing vector and prep the medical bay."

General Hux had been having a bad day and this, this tore it. He turned to the gunnery command and said, "Gunners. Prepare to shoot down our former supreme leader."  
"Sir, but...." said one of the officers.

General Hux shot him. As the officer's body hit the ground, General Hux said, "Any other objections?"

There were none. General Hux continued, "Open com channel to that Tie Fighter."

Kylo Ren tried to focus his pain into the Force to overcome it. It was a welcome relief when his comm crackled, "This is control. Please hold your current vector."

Kylo Ren held his vector to towards the station, but something was wrong. Then the com channel crackled again and he realized it was too late. General Hux came over the com, "You have failed us, Kylo Ren. You have failed the First Order, failed the Empire we would have created and failed the galaxy, and you have outlived your usefulness. Gunners, Fire."

With that, Kylo Ren's ship exploded in a ball of turbolaser fire. Had General Hux taken Kylo Ren home, saved the shipyard, he might. But by embracing his darkest side, he doomed the station to destruction.

Proton torpedoes and concussion missiles exploded against the side. Fuel tanks exploded and relays popped and sparked. Too late, General Hux realized his error.

Thus it was that General Hux reacted like all tyrants when their base is destroyed. They run.

He ordered his men to fight to the last and made his way to an armed shuttle and took off alone for the last hope of the First Order, the new Star Killer base. 

\----

The battle was over. The First order ships were smoking ruins or had surrendered. Fin landed his Star Fighter along with the remains of his squadrons aboard Corran's Horn. The mood was celebratory. The mechanics and pilots cheered mixed in with the slightly late electronic cheers of B-1's who had decided to get in on the cheering while not exactly understanding why.

As Hera retook the bridge of her ship, she mused at the success, but the throughness of the plan had been impressive. As thorough a victory as taking the ships from the First Order had been, Thrawn had one final indignity to the First Order.

He'd had the entire battle broadcast. Everyone in the galaxy knew that the First Order had lost most of it's military might in one shot, and that the Resistance had all of their precious weapons to turn back against them. Hera shook her head and appreciated the simple brilliance of it. The First Order kept power by a show of strength and had to look impossible to defeat. To do that they had been using the Holonet to project their power to the masses. Thrawn had simply turned their broadcasts against them, by showing them to be weaker than they appeared and fallible. 

Reports were already pouring across holonet of planets rebelling against the Order, as well as offers of defection, including a large scale one from some random secret First Order project. She simply stared out the viewport, watching a singed Ghost land next to an equally singed Millennium Falcon.

"We lived," she mused.

Kalani, who had been silently watching alongside spoke, "We won, General Sendulla."

"Same thing, I think. Sometimes, survival is winning." 

The droid processed that and then said, "Now what General Sendulla?"

"We wait for Ezra to get back with his shuttle from whatever errand he and Ahsoka are up to with Rey."

Aboard an old Imperial Lambda Shuttle, Rey looked out at the rubble without quite seeing it, or even sensing it through the Force. The fight was over, no thanks to her and she wasn't quite sure what to do next. Her key role in the Resistance was to spend most of the battle locked in carbonite. She said quietly, "why am I here?"

Ahsoka turned from her spot in the cockpit and said quietly, "Rey, reach out with your feelings. We can try to find him, but you have the connection. Ezra says we need to find him soon."

Rey sighed, "I... don't know how I should feel about him. He murdered the first man to take a friendly interest in me, his own father. His mother was an amazing woman, a good woman. How did he go so wrong?"

Ezra spoke up with sadness, "He chose the Dark side. You can train and teach, but at the end of the day, what that person does with it is their choice. Sometimes, people just choose to be evil. They can have every reason not to be, but they still choose it. And yes, sometimes there are creeps happy to give them a shove, and not have a good person there to help show them the difference, like I did."

Rey didn't really want to reach out with her feelings, so she stalled for time and asked, "What do you mean?"

"A long time ago, before the Rebellion really got going, I met a man named Kanan Jarrus. He was a Jedi. He taught me to use the Force, but more he taught me about the Force, how to hear it, how to feel it, and how to know what the right thing to do was. Along the way, we did some good, we did some bad, and we mostly survived.

"Well, at one point, we were guided to a place called Malacor. There I met and old man, who called himself Maul. He tempted me with power. Along the way I found a device, a holocron. It was a Sith Holocron. Once all was said and done on Malacor, I'd lost a friend, and Kanan had lost his eyes, and faced Kylo Ren's grandfather at the height of his power.

Ezra sighed, "Anyways, the long and short of it was that I let Maul influence me more than I should have, and chose to seek power over wisdom. It was Kanan who pulled me back from the brink. Kanan who reminded me that power isn't everything, and those that seek it often give up more than they gain."

Rey said, "So you're saying that Kylo Ren never had that?"

"No... more I think he spent his entire time with a guy like Maul, who bent and corrupted him. I don't think he'll seek the light side anymore, " Ezra said thoughtfully, "Anyways, I have a feeling we need him for one last journey, but we don't have long."

Rey said, "Oh, no idea why huh?"

"Nope," Ezra said, "It's just important and involves some place called Mortis."

"Mortis?!?" Ahsoka said, her mind reeling with images and memories, "How could I have forgotten it? It was during the Clone Wars, and I ... I know where we need to go! Rey, Ezra's right, we've got to find him. It's important."

Rey said, "Fine! I don't have to like it, but okay."

She crossed her legs and cleared her mind, put aside her anger and confusions towards Kylo Ren, or Ben Skywalker. She reached out with her feelings. She felt his pain, his anguish, his despair, and in that moment, knew where he was.

"There," She said, pointing to an area of floating debris, "he's in there, and fading fast."

They recovered the badly broken body of Ben Skywalker from the rubble. His legs and arms were broken and severed, and the rest of his body red with blood from his injuries. Be it strength of Spirit, the Dark side, pure dumb luck, or all of the three, he lived.

\----  
It was some time later that he hovered in a bacta tank. C-3PO was nattering on about some random incident from their past. Rey entered the med bay and sat by the Bacta Tank and she put her hand to the glass. His severed stump extended towards her weakly. There were guards, of course. Ezra and Ahsoka had both stood guard, but for right now, they weren't in sight.

Rey said quietly to C-3PO, "Would you give us a moment?"

C-3PO said, "Yes Mistress, but.... I will be here... if you need me."

She said as he left, "Thank you Threepeio.

Then it was just the mute Kylo Ren and Rey. She sat down and looked at him, "the doctors say that you'll be recovered enough to come out the bacta for a while. We've had artificial limbs set up so you'll be able to walk again, and other cybernetics to breathe and continue living. The damage is massive. Someone not of your lineage would have died. Then... then you'll face your fate. I hope you'll be ready for it.

"We talked, and as Ahsoka and Ezra explained it, you're not going to be put to death. Instead, it's a form of exile. But before then, we're going to put your mother to rest. You don't have to come, but I think you should... And maybe while you're at it, grieve the father you murdered.

"It's up to you Ben, " Rey finished standing, "I just wish I knew who my parents were to grieve them."

With that she left him to alone with the machines.

\----

Some time later, outside the Asteroid fields that once was Alderaan, the Super Star Destroyer, Corran's Horn hovered. In the main hangar, the heroes of the Rebellion and Resistance stood in long rows. Through the center of the bay, Rey, Chewbacca, Finn, Lando, Ezra, a limping Sabine, and Poe carried the torpedo like casket of Leia Organa Solo towards the massive launch and landing opening. Behind a force field, the stars and broken remains of Alderaan were on magnificent display. 

Near the entrance stood the broken remains of Kylo Ren, breathing assisted by a noisy respirator and standing on simple matte black prosthetics. In that moment, he realized that he'd become his grandfather. Everything he saw as strength was the broken, jagged pain of loss and misery. In pain, he had lashed out the galaxy, hurting others because all he had left was the pain. So it was that, in his own silent, broken way, Ben Skywalker grieved what might have been and lessons learned too late. An electronic mockery of his voice finally spoke to Ahsoka, who was beside him, "I understand. I accept my fate."

As they arrived at the edge of the launch deck on Corran's Horn, Poe activated the repulsors on the coffin, allowing it to float. He walked past the pall bearers and up onto the stage that had been erected nearby. He took the microphone and began, "There are many things I could say of Leia Organa Solo. 

"She was a mentor, a general, a friend, and so much more. She brought out the best in everyone around her. Her loss is a massive blow to us all. I...."

Poe choked up and then continued, "I guess her loss grieves me too. I could share many stories of the things she did for me and for us. I don't really have much more to say than this: Goodbye Princess, we are all better for knowing you, and all lesser for having lost you. May the Force Be With You."

As he stepped down, Chewbacca triggered the thrusters on the coffin. As it flew out into the depths of space, a volunteer orchestra played as soft melody. With that, Leia Organa Solo was consigned to her ancestors. 

As Ben Skywalker watched, he saw the blue lined images of his Luke Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker joined by a third, hooded woman dressed in senatorial whites. she lowered her hood, revealing the face of his mother, and then, they were gone. 

\----

General Hux's shuttle shuttered out of hyperspace. The hyperdrive smoked and sizzled, and the thrusters barely worked, but everything would be right when he reached Starkiller base. He was no engineer, he was a general, so a broken hyperdrive was of no significance. He keyed and submitted his landing clearances. 

With good First Order discipline, there was no response and since his codes were good, no interceptors flew to his shuttle, nor did the turbolaser batteries they'd put in place fire. As the shuttle descended he was surprised by the lack of activity in the bay. Of course, they had cleared it for him, and would undoubtedly give him a proper welcome when he arrived. He set the shuttle down with an unpracticed hand, but surely no one would fault the First Order's new Supreme Leader for that. 

He exited to find the bays completely empty. All was silent, with only the hum of the force field protecting the bay's entry and life support to keep him company. He made his way through empty corridors to the flight command center. There he found no one. The equipment sat idle save for the blinking light of his incoming message. 

"WHERE IS EVERYONE," he screamed.

The fussy voice of an old 3PO model droid answered him, "Oh I am so very sorry, but everyone left. You and I are the only ones here. Fortunately, I am excellent company."

\----

In the depths of space, the ancient Imperial shuttle hung near what looked to be nothing, but Ahsoka was sure now. This was the place, so she meditated and waited. Mortis would reveal itself when ready. Kylo Ren paced, pain and anger in each step, his broken body and cybernetics requiring much of his focus. Ezra mixed the two reactions, looking out with curiosity and some nervousness.

And then, as if it had always been there, they were in orbit around a strange planet, half light and half dark. As if of it's own accord, the shuttle descended. 

They landed near a temple, where an old man waited. He spoke calmly, "Welcome, Ben Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and Ezra Bridger. Be welcomed to Mortis. It is time for the change of the age. I am, or was Father."

Ahsoka spoke, "I remember you now. Why are we back here?"

"It is time for the change of seasons, for a new Daughter and Son to rise, and a new Father to stand over them. Those three are you.

Before anyone could interject, he continued, "Ben Skywalker, step forward."

Kylo Ren stepped forward in confusion and said, "What does this entail."

"Be yourself, you are Son. the dark side you will embody, the power, the pain, and the loss that is that side. The end, the destruction, and the loss. The shadow of the Dark side will consume you, but this is what you wished for."

Darkness swelled and while Kylo Ren did not seem to openly change, his eyes became red beneath the visor, his cybernetics seemed more dark and twisted than simple replacements, at his hip, his lightsaber appeared, somehow darker and twisted.

"Go forth to your domain, " Father intoned, and he vanished in darkness.

As dawn came to this impossible planet, Father spoke again, "Ahsoka Tano, when your order failed the Light, you clung to it still. When darkness consumed the galaxy, you clung to the light and brought it into the dark. You are henceforth Daughter. You will be a beacon to those who seek the Light."

As he spoke, the light came behind Ashoka, and it was if she shined brighter and her form seemed to gain a light from the inside. In the moment, it as if she was purer and brighter than she'd ever been.

"Go forth to your domain," Father said and she vanished in light. 

Ezra found his voice, "I guess that means I'll be going, as the position of Father is filled."

The old man laughed, "No, I am retiring. You shall be Father."

"Really? You know Ahsoka is older than I am?"

"If size matters not, why should time? But you already know this."

"What do you mean? Why am I so worthy? I sure don't feel worthy."

"Ezra, the Force is balance. It is time to turn the age. You have stood on the side of light, you have sought the darkness. In your time, you have opened both the Holocron of the Light side and of the Sith's darkness. And you have walked the hidden back stairs of Time and Space, and brought back the Daughter. 

"You understand this burden. There is none more worthy. Bear your charges well and turn the age," Father said, fading from sight.

\----

In a jungle, Rey sat alone on a rock. Beside her sat the books from the Tree. In her lap was a small cube object tied in a small pouch. It bore a small simple card that said, "For Rey, for the future."

Rey opened the small package and found it to be a translucent cube of blue with silver corners. She rested in the force and it rose, the corners detaching and hovering out at a distance, glowing. In the center, appeared the hologram of a small, wizened creature with long ears, holding a cane. 

It spoke, "Greetings young one. Master Yoda am I, gatekeeper of this holocron. Ready to learn you and your students are?"

"We are," Rey said and beyond her were hundreds of young and old all waiting to begin.

And so it was that the first of the new Jedi arose.

THE END


End file.
